<P> Joseph de Maistre is another of those men whose word, like that of Burke, has vitality . In imaginative power he is altogether inferior to Burke . On the other hand his thought moves in closer order than Burke's, more rapidly, more directly; he has fewer superfluities . Burke is a great writer, but Joseph de Maistre's use of the French language is more powerful, more thoroughly satisfactory, than Burke's use of the English . It is masterly; it shows us to perfection of what that admirable instrument, the French language, is capable . </P> <P> The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910 describes his writing style as "strong, lively, picturesque," and that his "animation and good humour temper his dogmatic tone . He possesses a wonderful facility in exposition, precision of doctrine, breadth of learning, and dialectical power ." Alphonse de Lamartine, though a political opponent, admired the splendour of his prose: </P> <P> That brief, nervous, lucid style, stripped of phrases, robust of limb, did not at all recall the softness of the eighteenth century, nor the declamations of the latest French books: it was born and steeped in the breath of the Alps; it was virgin, it was young, it was harsh and savage; it had no human respect, it felt its solitude; it improvised depth and form all at once...That man was new among the enfants du siècle (children of the century). </P> <P> Émile Faguet described Maistre as "a fierce absolutist, a furious theocrat, an intransigent legitimist, apostle of a monstrous trinity composed of pope, king and hangman, always and everywhere the champion of the hardest, narrowest and most inflexible dogmatism, a dark figure out of the Middle Ages, part learned doctor, part inquisitor, part executioner ." </P>

What is the role of social philosophers in french revolution