Such movements are never comprehended by those who imagine that their origin is rational.Political or religious, the beliefs which have moved the world possess a common origin and follow the same laws.They are formed, not by the reason, but more often contrary to reason.Buddhism, Christianity, Islamism, the Reformation, sorcery, Jacobinism, socialism, spiritualism, &c., seem very different forms of belief, but they have, Irepeat, identical mystic and affective bases, and obey forms of logic which have no affinity with rational logic.Their might resides precisely in the fact that reason has as little power to create them as to transform them.
The mystic mentality of our modern political apostles is strongly marked in an article dealing with one of our recent ministers, which I cite from a leading journal:
``One may ask into what category does M.A----fall? Could we say, for instance, that he belongs to the group of unbelievers?
Far from it! Certainly M.A---- has not adopted any positive faith; certainly he curses Rome and Geneva, rejecting all the traditional dogmas and all the known Churches.But if he makes a clean sweep it is in order to found his own Church on the ground so cleared, a Church more dogmatic than all the rest; and his own inquisition, whose brutal intolerance would have no reason to envy the most notorious of Torquemadas.
`` `We cannot,' he says, `allow such a thing as scholastic neutrality.We demand lay instruction in all its plenitude, and are consequently the enemies of educational liberty.' If he does not suggest erecting the stake and the pyre, it is only on account of the evolution of manners, which he is forced to take into account to a certain extent, whether he will or no.But, not being able to commit men to the torture, he invokes the secular arm to condemn their doctrines to death.This is exactly the point of view of the great inquisitors.It is the same attack upon thought.This freethinker has so free a spirit that every philosophy he does not accept appears to him, not only ridiculous and grotesque, but criminal.He flatters himself that he alone is in possession of the absolute truth.Of this he is so entirely sure that everyone who contradicts him seems to him an execrable monster and a public enemy.He does not suspect for a moment that after all his personal views are only hypotheses, and that he is all the more laughable for claiming a Divine right for them precisely because they deny divinity.Or, at least, they profess to do so; but they re-establish it in another shape, which immediately makes one regret the old.M.A---- is a sectary of the goddess Reason, of whom he has made a Moloch, an oppressive deity hungry for sacrifice.No more liberty of thought for any one except for himself and his friends; such is the free thought of M.A----.The outlook is truly attractive.
But perhaps too many idols have been cast down during the last few centuries for men to bow before this one.''
We must hope for the sake of liberty that these gloomy fanatics will never finally become our masters.
Given the silent power of reason over mystic beliefs, it is quite useless to seek to discuss, as is so often done, the rational value of revolutionary or political ideas.Only their influence can interest us.It matters little that the theories of the supposed equality of men, the original goodness of mankind, the possibility of re-making society by means of laws, have been given the lie by observation and experience.These empty illusions must be counted among the most potent motives of action that humanity has known.
3.The Jacobin Mentality.
Although the term ``Jacobin mentality'' does not really belong to any true classification, I employ it here because it sums up a clearly defined combination which constitutes a veritable psychological species.
This mentality dominates the men of the French Revolution, but is not peculiar to them, as it still represents one of the most active elements in our politics.
The mystic mentality which we have already considered is an essential factor of the Jacobin mind, but it is not in itself enough to constitute that mind.Other elements, which we shall now examine, must be added.
The Jacobins do not in the least suspect their mysticism.On the contrary, they profess to be guided solely by pure reason.
During the Revolution they invoked reason incessantly, and considered it as their only guide to conduct.
