[96] On each
d?cadi, through solemn and appropriate pomp, we impress on the popular
mind one of the highest truths of our creed; we glorify, in the order
of their dates, Nature, Truth, Justice, Liberty, Equality, the People,
Adversity, Humanity, the Republic, Posterity, Glory, Patriotism,
Heroism, and other virtues. Besides this, we honor the important days
of the Revolution, the taking of the Bastille, the fall of the Throne,
the punishment of the tyrant, the expulsion of the Girondins. We,
too, have our anniversaries, our relics, the relics of Chalier and
Marat,[97] our processions, our services, our ritual,[98] and the vast
system of visible pageantry by which dogmas are made manifest and
propagated. But ours, instead of leading men off to an imaginary
heaven, brings them back to a living patrimony, and, through our
ceremonies as well as through our creed, we shall preach public-
spiritedness (civism).
It is important to preach this to adults, it is still more important
to teach it to children: for children are more easily molded than
adults. Our hold on these still flexible minds is complete, and,
through national education "we seize the coming generations.
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