The reign of atheism in religion was fortified by a philosophy; and the works of one infidel writer preserve the expression of the view which it took of Christianity and religion. As soon as the excitement of the revolution allowed leisure to return to the study of mental facts, there arose the extreme form of sensationalism, which was called (in a different meaning from the present popular use of the term) Ideology, (24). Cabanis and Destutt de Tracy are the best exponents of its physiological and psychological aspects; and the well-known Volney of its moral and religious side. Starting from the principles of Condillac and Helvetius, that the very faculties as well as ideas are derived from sensation, and moral rules from self-love, it almost reaches the same point as D’Holbach. Mental science was approached from the physiological side, and so viewed that mind seemed to be made a property of brain.(594) The chief work in which Volney expresses his unbelief is entitled the “Ruins, or Meditations on the Revolutions of Empires.”(595) It is a poem in prose. Volney imagines himself falling into a meditation, amid the ruins of Palmyra, on the fall of empires.(596) The phantom of the ruins appears, and, entering into converse with him, causes him to see the kingdoms of the world, and guides him in the solution of the mysteries which puzzle him.(597) It unveils to him the view of nature as a system of laws, and of man as a being gifted with self-love. It traces the origin of society in a manner not unlike Rousseau,(598) and refers the source of evil to self-love; states the cause of ancient prosperity and decline, and draws the moral lesson from the past.(599) While Volney is despondent at the prospect of the future, a vision is unveiled to him of a new age. It is of a nation ridding itself of privileged classes, and arming itself when its young liberties were threatened by foreign powers.(600) It is an apocalyptic vision of France in his time. Then suddenly the vision changes, and an assembly of the nations of the world is gathered as in one common arena, to ascertain how they may arrive at unity and peace.(601) Their differences are illustrated by the discrepant opinions which they utter on religion; and the origin of each religion on the earth is traced.(602) It is here that Volney makes his speaker convey his own scepticism. He tracks the origin of the religious ideas(603) through the worship prompted by fear of the physical elements(604) and the stars(605) to that of symbols or idols,(606) with its accompanying mysteries and orders of priests; and then onward through dualism(607) to the belief of an unseen world;(608) then through mythology(609) and pantheism(610) to the belief in a Creator;(611) next, to Judaism(612) as the worship of the soul of the world; and lastly, through the Persian(613) and Hindu(614) systems to Christianity,(615) which he attempts to show to be the worship of the sun under the cabalistic names of Christ and Jesus.