XV DE MAISTRE'S MINOR WORKS1 WE have already noticed some of De Maistre's more important works, and have tried to describe some of the principal characteristics of his style and of his mind; but, little as we agree with him, the interest of what he writes, the vigour and hardihood of his assertions, and the force and brilliancy of his style are so attractive, that we propose to make some observations on three of his minor works which are usually published together. These are the Considérations sur la France, the Principe Générateur des Constitutions Politiques, and three letters on the Spanish Inquisition. No one of the three much exceeds in length an ordinary pamphlet, but each of them is so full of thought, so striking both in substance and in style, and embodies in so vigorous a manner the revival of old principles in somewhat novel forms, and the pro 1 Considérations sur la France. russe sur l'Inquisition espagnole. Maistre. Lettres à un Gentilhomme test made in their name against their triumphant antagonists, that when they are spoken of as minor works, the phrase must be taken to apply to nothing but their size. The Considérations sur la France were published in 1796, the year of the great Italian campaign. The first struggles of the Revolution were over, and the great movement had taken the military form, which was to distinguish it for the next twenty years, and to be a prelude to that much quieter but far more widely extended, profound, and radical form which it has assumed since 1815, and under which it is rapidly changing the whole framework, and recasting all the old institutions, of European society. It is well worth while to see what an observer, whose shrewdness and brilliancy were only equalled by his onesidedness, thought of the great change at so early a period of its history. It is not difficult to exhibit his view of the subject shortly, for, as one of his principal talents was that of illustration and expansion, he had occasion to repeat his main thought many times over in various forms. The following, then, were his principal considerations on the French Revolution: The Revolution is not the work of men. They, on the contrary, are its instruments. The Divinity never showed himself so clearly in any human event. This is proved by the fact that 'des hommes plus que médiocres' took the measure of the Revolution better than their superiors, and managed its affairs more wisely. They never made a mistake, any more than Vaucanson's flute-player, because they were mere puppets in the hands of one stronger than themselves. What, then, was the design of Providence in the French Revolution? This is matter of conjecture, but it may be supposed that the object was both to punish the French nation for its crimes, and to purify it by suffering, for the great part which properly, by an immutable law of nature, belongs to it in European affairs. With all his absolutism De Maistre asserted with the utmost emphasis the necessity of preserving the independence of France, even at the expense of obeying the Committee of Public Safety: 'Le mouvement révolutionnaire une fois accompli, la France et la monarchie ne pouvaient être sauvées que par le jacobinisme.' His fundamental principle was that France exercises over Europe a real magistracy which it would be useless to contest, and which she has abused in the most criminal manner.' This magistracy was to be preserved, and at the same moment the abuses of it, and the special crimes of all classes of Frenchmen, were to be punished by the scourge of war and its miseries. This was the explanation of the success of the French. This is why 'les vents conduisent les vaisseaux des Français et repoussent ceux de leurs ennemis; que l'hiver fait des ponts de glace au moment où ils en ont besoin; que les souverains qui les gênent meurent à point nommé,' etc. We have a right to make these conjectures, because it is a general law of human nature that nations are chastised by war, and that these chastisements have indirect advantages. It is true that wars punish the innocent as well as the guilty, but this is only an illustration of another general law-that which provides that the innocent may suffer for, and to the advantage of, the guilty. The joint operation of these three laws - the magistracy of France in Europe, the punishment of national sins by war, and the power which the innocent have of expiating guilt by vicarious suffering-supply the moral interpretation of the French Revolution. The interpretation, no doubt, is conjectural, but 'si nos conjectures sont plausibles, si elles ont pour elles l'analogie, si elles s'appuient sur des idées universelles, si surtout elles sont consolantes et propres à nous rendre meilleurs, que nous manque-t-il? Si elles ne sont pas vraies elles sont bonnes; ou plutôt puisqu'elles sont bonnes ne sont-elles pas vraies?' Passing from the moral to the political point of view, De Maistre goes on to advocate a counterrevolution. A great part of his arguments have lost the interest which they once possessed, but part of them have rather gained than lost in importance by the lapse of years which have passed since they were written. There are to be found in De Maistre the germs of several of the most popular of the Ultramontanist commonplaces which since his time have come to occupy a very VOL. III T large space in the world. At the moment of its highest power and greatest apparent triumph he denounced the Revolution in its fundamental principles. He declared that it was utterly bad, that it would perish and pass away, that it was essentially antichristian, that Christianity would rise up against it, purified and strengthened by disaster, and overthrow it. : 'Le philosophisme' (he says) n'a donc plus de plaintes à faire; toutes les chances humaines sont en sa faveur; on fait tout pour lui et tout contre sa rivale. S'il est vainqueur il ne dira pas comme César Je suis venu, j'ai vu et j'ai vaincu; mais enfin il aura vaincu; il peut battre des mains et s'asseoir fièrement sur une croix renversée. Mais si le christianisme sort de cette épreuve terrible plus pur et plus vigoureux; si Hercule chrétien, fort de sa seule force, soulève le fils de la terre et l'étouffe dans ses bras, patuit Deus.' Besides this, he insists at length upon the nullity, as he calls it, of the republican Constitution in France. Every nation has its own natural constitution, which cannot be changed in an arbitrary manner. Men can no more make a Constitution—that is, a general scheme of laws and political arrangements-than they can make a new law of nature. 'L'homme peut tout modifier dans la sphère de son existence, mais il ne crée rien; telle est la loi, au physique comme au moral.' Constitutions are the work of God. They grow, and are not made. Institutions |