the origins of contemporary france-4-第44章
按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
community has no direct interest therein; the matter belongs to
individuals and not to the State。 On the other hand; if the interest
of the community in any function is direct; and indirect for
individuals singly or associated together; it is proper for the State
and not for individuals to take hold of it。 … According to this rule
the limits of the public and private domain can be defined; which
limits; as they change backward and forward; may be verified according
to the changes which take place in interests and preferences; direct
or indirect。
'18' Carlyle: 〃Cromwell's Speeches and Letters;〃 III。; 418。
(Cromwell's address to the Parliament; September 17; 1656。)
'19' Seeley; 〃Life and Times of Stein;〃 II。; 143。 … Macaulay;
〃Biographical essays;〃 Frederick the Great。 33; 35; 87; 92。
'20' Eugene Schuyler; 〃Peter the Great;〃 vol。 2。
'21' Cf。 〃The Revolution〃 vol。 II。; pp。 46 and 323; vol。 III。; ch
I。 Archives des Affaires Etrangèrés。 Vol。 332。 (Letter by
Thiberge; Marseilles; Brumaire 14; year II。) 〃I have been to
Marteygne; a small town ten leagues from Marseilles; along with my
colleague Fournet; I found (je trouvée) seventeen patriots in a town
of give thousand population。〃 … Ibid。; (Letter by Regulus Leclerc;
Bergues; Brumaire 15; year II。) At Bergues; he says; 〃the municipality
is composed of traders with empty stores and brewers without beer
since the law of the maximum。〃 Consequently there is universal
lukewarmness; 〃only forty persons being found to form a popular club;
holding sessions as a favor every five days。 。 。 。 Public spirit
at Bergues is dead; fanaticism rules。〃 … Archives Nationales; F7; 7164
(Department of Var; reports of year V。 〃General idea。〃) … 〃At
Draguignan; out of seven thousand souls; forty patriots; exclusifs;
despised or dishonest; at Vidauban; nine or ten exclusifs; favored by
the municipality and who live freely without their means being known;
at Brignolles; frequent robberies on the road by robbers said to have
been very patriotic in the beginning of the Revolution: people are
afraid of them and dare not name them; at Fréjus; nine leading
exclusifs who pass all their time in the cafe。〃 … Berryat…Saint…Prix;
〃La Justice Révolutionnaire;〃 p。 146。 … Brutus Thierry; grocer;
member of the Rev。 Com。 Of Angers; said that 〃in angers; there were
not sixty revolutionaries。〃
'22' Macaulay。 〃History of England;〃 I。; 152。 〃The Royalists
themselves confessed that; in every department of honest industry; the
discarded warriors prospered beyond other men; that none was charged
with any theft or robbery; that none was heard to ask an alms; and
that; if a baker; a mason; or a waggoner attracted notice by his
diligence and sobriety; he was in all probability one of Oliver's old
soldiers。〃
BOOK THIRD。 THE MEN IN POWER。
CHAPTER I。 PSYCHOLOGY OF THE JACOBIN LEADERS。
I。
Marat。 … Disparity between his faculties and pretensions。 … The
Maniac。 … The Ambitious delirium。 … Rage for persecution。 … The
permanent nightmare。 … Homicidal frenzy。
Three men among the Jacobins; Marat; Danton and Robespierre; had
deserved preeminence and held authority: … that is because they; due
to a deformity or warping of their minds and their hearts; met the
required conditions。 …
Of the three; Marat is the most monstrous; he is nearly a madman; of
which he displays the chief characteristics … furious exaltation;
constant over…excitement; feverish restlessness; an inexhaustible
propensity for scribbling; that mental automatism and single…
mindedness of purpose constrained and ruled by a fixed idea。 In
addition to this; he displays the usual physical symptoms; such as
insomnia; a pallid complexion; hot…headed; foulness of dress and
person;'1' with; during the last five months of his life; rashes and
itching all over his body。'2' Issuing from ill…matched stock; born of
a mixed blood and tainted with serious moral agitation;'3' he carries
within him a peculiar germ: physically; he is a freak; morally a
pretender; and one who covet all places of distinction。 His father;
who was a physician; intended; from his early childhood; that he
should be a scholar; his mother; an idealist; had prepared him to
become a philanthropist; while he himself always steered his course
towards both summits。
〃At five years of age;〃 he says; 〃it would have pleased me to be a
school…master; at fifteen a professor; at eighteen an author; and a
creative genius at twenty;〃'4'and; afterwards; up to the last; an
apostle and martyr to humanity。 〃From my earliest infancy I had an
intense love of fame which changed its object at various stages of my
life; but which never left me for a moment。〃 He rambled over Europe or
vegetated in Paris for thirty years; living a nomadic life in
subordinate positions; hissed as an author; distrusted as a man of
science and ignored as a philosopher; a third rate political writer;
aspiring to every sort of celebrity and to every honor; constantly
presenting himself as a candidate and as constantly rejected; … too
great a disproportion between his faculties and ambition! Without
talents;'5' possessing no critical acumen and of mediocre
intelligence; he was fitted only to teach some branch of the sciences;
or to practice some one of the arts; either as professor or doctor
more or less bold and lucky; or to follow; with occasional slips on
one side or the other; some path clearly marked out for him。 〃But;〃
he says; 〃I constantly refused any subject which did not hold out a
promise。 。 。 。 of showing off my originality and providing great
results; for I cannot make up my mind to treat a subject already well
done by others。〃 … Consequently; when he tries to originate he merely
imitates; or commits mistakes。 His treatise on 〃 Man〃 is a jumble of
physiological and moral common…places; made up of ill…digested reading
and words strung together haphazard;'6' of gratuitous and incoherent
suppositions in which the doctrines of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries; coupled together; end in empty phraseology。 〃Soul and Body
are distinct substances with no essential relationship; being
connected together solely through the nervous fluid;〃 this fluid is
not gelatinous for the spirits by which it is renewed contains no
gelatin; the soul; excited by this; excites that; hence the place
assigned to it 〃in the brain。〃 … His 〃 Optics〃'7' is the reverse of
the great truth already discovered by Newton more than a century
before; and since confirmed by more than another century of experiment
and calculation。 On〃 Heat 〃 and 〃Electricity〃 he merely puts forth
feeble hypotheses and literary generalizations; one day; driven to the
wall; he inserts a needle in a resin to make this a conductor; in
which piece of scientific trickery he is caught by the physicist
Charles。'8' He is not even qualified to comprehend the great
discoverers of his age; Laplace; Monge; Lavoisier; or Fourcroy; on the
contrary; he libels them in the style of a low rebellious subordinate;
who; without the shadow of a claim; aims to take the place of
legitimate authorities。 In Politics; he adopts every absurd idea in
vogue growing out of the 〃Contrat…Social〃 based on natural right; and
which he renders still more absurd by repeating as his own the
arguments advanced by those bungling socialists; who; physiologists
astray in the moral world; derive all rights from physical
necessities。
〃All human rights issue from physical wants'9'。。。 If a man has
nothing; he has a right to any surplus with which another gorges
himself。 What do I say? He has a right to seize the indispensable;
and; rather than die of hunger; he may cut another's throat and eat
his throbbing flesh。 。 。 。 Man has a right to self…preservation;
to the property; the liberty and even the lives of his fellow
creatures。 To escape oppression he has a right to repress; to bin