The edifice, which should have been reared by the Directory, was scarcely advanced at all, owing to the singular dullness of the new rulers of France.

But the genius was at hand.

He restored order, he rallied various classes to his side, he methodized local government, he restored finance and credit, he restored religious peace and yet secured the peasants in their tenure of the confiscated lands, he rewarded merit with social honours, and finally he solidified his polity by a comprehensive code of laws which made him the keystone of the now rounded arch of French life.
His methods in this immense work deserve attention: they were very different from those of the revolutionary parties after the best days of 1789 were past.

The followers of Rousseau worked on rigorous _a priori_ methods.

If institutions and sentiments did not square with the principles of their master, they were swept away or were forced into conformity with the new evangel.