Antoine, comte de RIVAROL (1753-1801). Autograph manuscript, Phie 1 page oblong in-8. On philosophy. "It is worth noting that the philosophers Porphyry, Jamblicus, Celsus, Julian, Hierocles etc. defended the religion of the Empire politically because this religion had been incorporated into the State, because the Empire had flourished under this religion: they therefore opposed the nascent cult which threatened to overthrow everything... But in vain. The torrent swept away everything: the Empire and the religion of all Nations were abolished and the old world found itself Christian.... And when, after 18 centuries, this same Christianity, which had become political, was in turn incorporated into the new States which had shared the Empire, when Europe was both calm and flourishing under the sign of the cross, the Ph[ilosophes attacked this same religion, succeeded in overthrowing it, and Europe remained without religion [...] prey to the bayonets of the first usurper whom this revolution had favoured, to the great scandal of this same Ph[ilosophy]". On verso, authentication a.s. by his brother General Claude-François, comte de Rivarol (1762-1848). Attached is a L.A.S. from Countess Louise de Rivarol née Flint, 13 February 1815 (1 p. in-4), about the payment of her pension as a "woman of letters advantageously known [...] the reign of the Bourbons so desired having finally arrived"...