登陆注册
4811400000646

第646章

"The French people," says Robespierre, "seems to have outstripped the rest of humanity, by two thousand years; one might be tempted to regard them, living amongst them, as a different species. In the rest of Europe, a ploughman, an artisan, is an animal formed for the pleasures of a noble; in France, the nobles are trying to transform themselves into ploughmen and artisans, but do not succeed in obtaining that honor."[111] Life in all directions is gradually assuming democratic forms Wealthy prisoners are prohibited from purchasing delicacies, or procuring special conveniences; they eat along with the poor prisoners the same ration, at the common mess[112]. Bakers have orders to make but one quality of bread, the brown bread called equality bread, and, to obtain his ration, each person must place himself in line with the rest of the crowd. On holidays[113] everybody will bring his provisions down into the street and eat as one family with his neighbor; on décadi all are to sing and dance together, pell-mell, in the temple of the Supreme being. The decrees of the Convention and the orders of the representatives impose the republican cockade on women; public opinion and example impose on men the costume and appearance of sans-culottes we see even dandies wearing mustaches, long hair, red cap, vest and heavy wooden shoes.[114] Nobody calls a person Monsieur or Madame; the only titles allowed are citoyen and citoyenne while thee and Thou is the general rule. Rude familiarity takes the place of monarchical politeness; all greet each other as equals and comrades.[115] There is now only one tone, one style, one language; revolutionary forms constitute the tissue of speech, as well as of written discourse; thought now seems to consists entirely of our ideas and phrases.[116] All names are transformed, those of months and of days, those of places and of monuments, baptismal names and names of families: St. Denis has become Franciade; Peter Gaspard is converted into Anaxagoras, and Antoine-Louis into Brutus; Leroi, the deputy, calls himself Laloi, and Leroy, the jurist, calls himself August-Tenth. - By dint of thus shaping the exterior we reach the interior, and through outward civism we prepare internal civism. Both are obligatory, but the latter much more so than the former; for that is the fundamental principle,[117]

"the incentive which sustains and impels a democratic and popular government." It is impossible to apply the social contract if everybody does not scrupulously observe the first clause of it, namely, the complete surrender of himself to the community; everybody, then, must give himself up entirely, not only actually but heartily, and devote himself to the public good, which public good is the regeneration of Man as we have defined it. The veritable citizen is he who thus marches along with us. With him, as with us, abstract truths of philosophy control the conscience and govern the will. He starts with our articles of faith and follows them out to the end; he endorses our acts, he recites our creed, he observes our discipline, he is a believing and practicing Jacobin, an orthodox Jacobin, unsullied, and without taint of heresy or schism. Never does he swerve to the left toward exaggeration, nor to the right toward toleration; without haste or delay he travels along the narrow, steep and straight path which we have marked out for him; this is the pathway of reason, for, as there is but one reason, there is but one pathway. Let no one swerve from the line; there are abysses on each side of it. Let us follow our guides, men of principles, the pure, especially Couthon, Saint-Just and Robespierre; they are choice specimens, all cast in the true mold, and it is this unique and rigid mold in which all French men are to be recast.

______________________________________________________________________-Notes:

[1] This and the following text are taken from the "Contrat-Social" by Rousseau. Cf. "The ancient Régime," book III., ch.. IV.

[2] This idea, so universally prevalent and precocious, is uttered by Mirabeau in the session of the 10th of August, 1789. (Buchez et Roux, II., 257.) "I know of but three ways of maintaining one's existence in society, and these are to be either a beggar, a robber or a hireling.

The proprietor is himself only the first of hirelings. What we commonly call his property is nothing more than the pay society awards him for distributing amongst others that which is entrusted to him to distribute through his expenses and through what he consumes;proprietors are the agents, the stewards of the social body."[3] Report by Roland, January 6, 1793, and by Cambon, February 1, 1793.

[4] Buchez et Roux, XXXI., 311. Report by Saint-Just, Vent?se 8, year II., and decree in conformity therewith.

[5] Decree of 13 Brumaire, year II. - Report by Cambon, Feb. 1, 1793. Cambon estimates the property alone of the order of Malta and of the colleges at four hundred million livres.

[6] Moniteur, XVIII., 419 and 486. Reports by Cambon, Brumaire 22 and Frimaire 1st, year II. "Let us begin with taking possession of the leased domains, notwithstanding preceding laws."[7] Cf. "The Ancient Régime," p. 14.

[8] Mallet-Dupan, "Mémoires," II., 19. Moniteur, XVIII., 565.

(Report by Cambon, 11 Frimaire, year II.) Requested to do so by a popular club of Toulouse, the department of Haute-Garonne has ordered all possessors of articles in gold or silver to bring them to the treasuries of their districts to be exchanged for assignats. This order has thus far brought into the Toulouse treasury about one million five hundred thousand or one million six hundred thousand livres in gold and silver. The same at Montauban and other places.

同类推荐
  • 引凤萧

    引凤萧

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 音辞

    音辞

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太上说通真高皇解冤经

    太上说通真高皇解冤经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 大慧度经宗要

    大慧度经宗要

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 宾退随笔

    宾退随笔

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 青山祭

    青山祭

    “昨晚说到哪儿了?哦,那时场面大乱,我挥剑朝清河帮帮主砍去,被他用一招武当派的‘平沙落雁’格开。我虽然只学过一点点武功,但也不是能让他们随便欺负的。说时迟,那时快,我趁他反手要回刺我的时候点住了他的笑穴!”“哼,哼哼——”惊异的冷笑声引得白小舟回头,瞬间石化。方澜提剑站在他们身后,哼笑不止:“白小舟,我怎么不知道原来你还会武功?”
  • 你的情局我的爱

    你的情局我的爱

    他为报复,亲手布下这情局,只待她步步沦陷。她认定他是一生所爱,付出真心,到头来遍体鳞伤。走向他,就走向痛苦,离开他,就离开幸福,所以,若能同他余生相守,要她飞蛾扑火也无怨无悔……
  • 智慧女人一生必做的100件事

    智慧女人一生必做的100件事

    本书涵盖了女人一生必须撑握的人生观、爱情观与价值观。它站在生命之颠,立足于女人一生的现状实情,与她们一起探讨生命奥秘。同时书中所描述女人必做的100件事,是给女性一个正确的精神指引和行动要领,可以说是女性成功的蓝本。愿此书与女性朋友共勉,为她们的生活锦上添花,为她们的成功推波助澜,愿她们今后拥有幸福美满的生活不再是偶然。
  • 村长要直选

    村长要直选

    贫穷的后山村要直选村长(正规的叫法是“村民委员会主任”,但老百姓还是习惯于叫“村长”)了,在省城发了财的杜大刚被爹爹装病骗了回来。原来,大伯、爹爹、叔叔们想让他当村长。想当村长的人很多,为了拉选票,一个村庄的人都忙开了:找本家、出钱,支书也在暗中动手脚。这些想当村长的人,究竟是不是无私奉献的好带头人呢?本来想在省城继续发财的杜大刚能当上村长吗?一回到自家那间低矮的草房,看着昏暗的灯光下大伯、爹爹、叔叔们那些风刻雨凿的面孔,杜大刚蓦然失去了穿着高档运动服在大城市的早晨沿着林阴道慢跑的感觉。
  • 晚秋寻风

    晚秋寻风

    念念不忘,久别重逢,前缘再续,细水长流。
  • 深圳经济特区年谱(1978~2018)(全集)

    深圳经济特区年谱(1978~2018)(全集)

    本书记录的是一座年轻而充满创造力的城市——深圳的不同寻常的令世人瞩目的成长历程。在中国历史上,恐怕还没有哪座城市能像她那样,以其自身的诞生预示着一个时代的开始和另一个时代的结束;也没有哪座城市能像她那样,以其自身的发展体现、引领着整个国家制度变迁的方向,并创造着一种崭新的富有绩效的社会发展模式;更没有哪座城市能像她那样,以其自身的不断变革书写着社会转型的奇迹,并在创造财富的同时创造着创新的观念、精神和理念。
  • Museum of Innocence

    Museum of Innocence

    The Museum of Innocence-set in Istanbul between 1975 and today-tells the story of Kemal, the son of one of Istanbul's richest families, and of his obsessive love for a poor and distant relation, the beautiful Fusun, who is a shop-girl in a small wkkk.net novel depicts a panoramic view of life in Istanbul as it chronicles this long, obsessive, love affair between Kemal and Fusun; and Pamuk beautifully captures the identity crisis esperienced by Istanbul's upper classes who find themselves caught between traditional and westernised ways of wkkk.net the past ten years, Pamuk has been setting up a museum in the house in which his hero's fictional family lived, to display Kemal's strange collection of objects associated with Fusun and their relationship. The museum will be called The Museum of Innocence and it opens in 2010.
  • 穿越忍界之制造女神

    穿越忍界之制造女神

    穿越到火影忍着的世界,发放任务……造神。神?什么样的人才可以成为神呢?女的! (注:为了吸引更多的读者观看本书,我果断出卖了我的节操:女主纲手,再问供养。) (注:很多人都在纠结书名的问题,在此说明一下,书名就是本书的最终主线,是需要用整本书去铺垫的唯一结局,所以不写到最后期,是看不到书名的。所以,请不要继续纠结书名了。这样说,想来大家猜到女神是谁了吧,封面不解释。呜呜,提前剧透会不会降低读者的期待感啊,好担心。)
  • 樱花情人

    樱花情人

    《樱花情人》描述了一段刻骨铭心的异国情缘,感情真挚,故事感人。作品语言细腻,心理描写非常到位。
  • 孟子全书

    孟子全书

    孟子被誉为亚圣是有一定道理的,他将孔子的思想发扬光大,构建了完整的体系,并有许多重要的思想创见。其著作《孟子》是儒家最重要的经典之一,也是现代人不可缺少的精神食粮。许多激励人心、流传千古的至理名言亦源于《孟子》。古代学问大家韩愈有言:“求观圣人之道,必自孟子始。”当代诺贝尔奖获得者杨振宁也说:“三十岁后,我做人处世全靠孟子。”可见,不学习《孟子》将会蒙受无以弥补的损失。