When we analyze the causes of the evolution of order and prosperity out of the conditions of 1793, and the later conditions of 1800, we can hardly fail to realize the greatest single cause was the same cause as that of Napoleon's victories. It was the mind that conceived and developed and brought forth; the mind that invented so amazingly.
That many other causes may be named need hardly be pointed out. In the complex affairs of human life, every result is the resultant of many causes; but in most of those affairs, most of those causes are always present; so that we have to find an unusual cause to explain an unusual condition or event. It would be easy to say that the cause of France's return to a condition of law and order was that the condition of anarchy was abnormal; and that France simply returned to her normal state, as a wave does after it has risen above or fallen below the level of the sea. But would this be true? Is the condition of anarchy more abnormal than the condition of law and order? Which was the condition of primitive man? Which is an artificial product of man's invention? Is it not logical to conclude from the record of invention's influence that it was man's inventions that brought into existence the artificial condition of law and order which existed in France prior to 1793, and that it was also man's inventions that restored it afterward? Three ideas were conceived in France and developed into the Revolution: these ideas were the principles of equality, of the sovereignty of the people and of nationality. After the overthrow of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna met to readjust the affairs of Europe. The Congress seems to have conceived the idea of preventing the carrying out of those principles as their first starting point, and to have developed that idea with fixed determination. The Commissioners endeavored to restore everything to its condition before the Revolution, and to discredit the principles conceived and developed in France. They succeeded in accomplishing their intent, so far as remaking political boundaries, etc., was concerned; but they did not succeed in discrediting the principles. A great picture had been made in the minds of men, and the Commissioners could not wipe it out. As a result, three revolutions took place in 1820, 1830 and 1848, of which the second was more important than the first, and the third was more important than the second.