He concludes that the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy is not only inevitable but will occur with surprising ease. He suggests that once the "fever" of the Revolution breaks, the French people will realize that the King is their only true protector against the chaos of democratic factionalism. Legacy and Impact
Joseph de Maistre’s Considerations on France (1797) stands as the foundational text of throne-and-altar counter-revolutionary thought. Written from exile, Maistre provides a provocative, providentialist interpretation of the French Revolution, arguing that it was not a political accident but a divine punishment and a necessary purgation of a corrupted nation. The Revolution as Divine Chastisement Maistre: Considerations on France
For Maistre, a constitution cannot be "made" by a committee; it must be "grown" through history, tradition, and divine sanction. He believed that the more a constitution is written down, the weaker it is, as true political authority rests on the "unwritten" prejudices and religious sentiments that bind a people together. The "Miracle" of the Restoration He concludes that the restoration of the Bourbon
He argues that the revolutionaries were merely "instruments" of a higher power. He notes that the leaders of the Revolution—Robespierre, Couthon, and Saint-Just—possessed no true greatness; rather, they were swept along by a "revolutionary torrent" they could not control. Their role was to punish the French nobility and clergy for their decadence and skepticism, effectively "bleeding" France so it might eventually return to its traditional roots. The Fallacy of Written Constitutions The "Miracle" of the Restoration He argues that
A significant portion of the essay is dedicated to a critique of rationalist political theory. Maistre famously mocked the abstract "Rights of Man" championed by the National Assembly. He argued that "Man" as a universal concept does not exist:
"I have seen, in my time, Frenchmen, Italians, Russians... but as for Man, I declare I never met him in my life; if he exists, it is without my knowledge."
The central pillar of Maistre’s argument is that the Revolution was a "satanic" event, though one sanctioned by God. He views the Enlightenment as a period of intellectual pride where "philosophes" attempted to replace divine order with human reason. To Maistre, the Reign of Terror was the logical conclusion of this hubris.