[Kevin Curry]

When the doctrinaire liberals repudiated the idea of Providence, they retained only a moral concept shorn of religious sanctions and left to wither into mere selfishness.

E.g., Ayn Rand's insipid atheistic objectivism pap, and modern atheistic libertarianism that believes that a people who reject God and the moderating influences of traditional virtue-instilling institutions including church and family can remain free, prosperous, and secure.

But Edmund Burke described well the deadly consequences of such morality-negating hedonism and populism when he critiqued the sorry state of France post-revolution.

Libertarians--particularly atheist libertarians--are drunk on the same rotgut populist, knee-jerk anti-government wine that the Jacobins brewed up in 1793. This drunkness led to the Reign of Terror which ultimately created the necessary conditions for Napoleon to wrest absolute despostic control of France.

What was it Santayana said about those who fail to learn from history?

[William McKinley]

I am surprised that Kirk did not write a bit more about the Jacobins in these early chapters. Granted, he is focusing on those who were repulsed by Jacobian thought, but still one who was unfamiliar with the Jacobins would probably not fully get some of the references.