Adams, in his personal life, was quite sceptical about religion. He thought, however, that the common man required the restraints imposed upon him by religion in order to lead a productive and orderly life. His public pronouncements reflect that attitude, not what he personally thought about religion.

Mr. Cannon, this installment is another well researched, well pondered, well written article that we all would be well advised to read and ponder. This installment is particularly pertinent to much of the discussion going on as readers respond to letters to the editors. One group relies upon an imperfect knowledge of and understanding about God while the other group rejects any reference to God because they, themselves, also have an imperfect knowledge of and understanding about God.

Your article showed the outcome of two nations who also had those same basic attitudes. One nation rose out of obscurity to become the World Power that it is today. The other nation fell from being a World Power to becoming a nation almost cloaked with obscurity.

And now, those who refuse to study history would have America follow the path that France chose to follow - which makes your articles so very important and so very timely.

Another very well-thought-out and clearly written piece. I'm envious of your ability to do so much in so little space.

But, of course, I have a quibble: I quibble with the sharpness of the distinction between the two Revolutions and two Enlightenments. As you well know, the cross-fertilization between British thinkers and French ones was enormous. The former listened carefully to what their French brothers were saying, the latter paid a great deal of attention to what their British colleagues were writing.

As a result, though there is no question that you are right about the difference in tendency between the two, each also contained strains of the other.

To Mike Richards: France is about the size of Texas and has about one-fifth the population of the U.S., yet they are still the world's 5th largest economy. They do alot of things there that I would not like to see here, but, all things considered, they are doing alright.