Such was the French revolution. Who has measured it? whose judgment and forecast have not been a thousand times deceived by it, whether friends or foes, admirers or detractors? When the spirit of society and the spirit of man are shaken and convulsed to such a degree, results are produced which no imagination had conceived, no forethought could grasp. That which experience has taught us, Washington caught sight of from the first day. At the time when the French Revolution had hardly begun, he was already suspending his judgment, and taking his position aloof from all parties and all spectators; free from the presumption of their predictions, from the blindness of their hostility or their hope. "The whole business is so extraordinary in its commencement, so wonderful in its progress, and maybe so stupendous in its consequences, that I am almost lost in the contemplation. ... Nobody is more anxious for the happy issue of that business, than I am; as no one can wish more sincerely for the prosperity of the French nation, than I do." [Footnote 77] [Footnote 77: Washington's Writings, Vol. X. p. 89.] {134} "If it ends as our last accounts, to the first of August, [1789,] predict, that nation will be the most powerful and happy in Europe; but I fear, though it has gone triumphantly through the first paroxysm, it is not the last it has to encounter before, matters are finally settled. ... The mortification of the king, the intrigues of the queen, and the discontent of the princes and noblesse, will foment divisions, if possible, in the National Assembly; ... the licentiousness of the people on one hand, and sanguinary punishments on the other, will alarm the best disposed friends to the measure. ... To forbear running from one extreme to another is no easy matter; and, should this be the case, rocks and shelves, not visible at present, may wreck the vessel, and give a higher-toned despotism than the one which existed before." [Footnote 78] "It is a boundless ocean, whence no land is to be seen." [Footnote 79] [Footnote 78: Washington's Writings, Vol. X. p. 40.] [Footnote 79: Ibid., Vol. X. p. 344.] {135}