That the Bastille was attacked with an enthusiasm of heroism, such only as the highest animation of liberty could inspire, and carried in the space of a few hours, is an event which the world is fully possessed of.
From his defense of the French Revolution, this passage describes the heroic spirit that led to the storming of the Bastille.
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It was a sort of new form of government that insensibly served to put the old one out of sight and to unhinge it from the superstitious authority of antiquity.
The argument changes from hereditary rights to hereditary wisdom; and the question is, Who is the wisest man?
They had a cause at stake, on which depended their freedom or their slavery.