Hence Hume, though I cannot say that he
does not throw out some expressions of disapprobation on the proceedings
of the levellers in the reign of Richard the Second, yet affirms that
the doctrines of John Ball were "conformable to the ideas of primitive
equality _which are engraven in the hearts of all men_."
Boldness formerly was not the character of atheists as such. They were
even of a character nearly the reverse; they were formerly like the old
Epicureans, rather an unenterprising race. But of late they are grown
active, designing, turbulent, and seditious. They are sworn enemies to
kings, nobility, and priesthood. We have seen all the Academicians at
Paris, with Condorcet, the friend and correspondent of Priestley, at
their head, the most furious of the extravagant republicans.
[Sidenote: Condorcet.]
The late Assembly, after the last captivity of the king, had actually
chosen this Condorcet, by a majority on the ballot, for preceptor to the
Dauphin, who was to be taken out of the hands and direction of his
parents, and to be delivered over to this fanatic atheist and furious
democratic republican.
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