The French Revolution, vol 3 | Page 3

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This Etext prepared by Svend Rom

The French Revolution, Volume 1. ^M The Origins of Contemporary
France, Volume 2^M ^M by Hippolyte A. Taine^M

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION VOLUME III. PREFACE. BOOK
FIRST. The Establishment of the Revolutionary Government.
CHAPTER I.
BOOK SECOND. The Jacobin Program.
CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.
BOOK THIRD. The Governors.

CHAPTER I.
Psychology of the Jacobin Leaders.
CHAPTER II.
The Rulers of the Country.
CHAPTER III.
The Rulers. (continued). BOOK FOURTH. The Governed.
CHAPTER I.
The Oppressed.
CHAPTER II.
Food and Provisions. BOOK FIFTH. The End of the Revolutionary
Government.
CHAPTER I.

PREFACE.
"In Egypt," says Clement of Alexandria,[1] "the sanctuaries of the
temples are shaded by curtains of golden tissue. But on going further
into the interior in quest of the statue, a priest of grave aspect,
advancing to meet you and chanting a hymn in the Egyptian tongue,
slightly raises a veil to show you the god. And what do you behold? A
crocodile, or some indigenous serpent, or other dangerous animal, the
Egyptian god being a beast sprawling on a purple carpet."
We need not visit Egypt or go so far back in history to encounter
crocodile worship, as this can be readily found in France at the end of
the last century. -- Unfortunately, a hundred years is too long an

interval, too far away, for an imaginative retrospect of the past. At the
present time, standing where we do and regarding the horizon behind
us, we see only forms which the intervening atmosphere embellishes,
shimmering contours which each spectator may interpret in his own
fashion; no distinct, animated figure, but merely a mass of moving
points, forming and dissolving in the midst of picturesque architecture.
I was anxious to take a closer view of these vague points, and,
accordingly, deported myself back to the last half of the eighteenth
century. I have now been living with them for twelve years, and, like
Clement of Alexandria, examined, first, the temple, and next the god. A
passing glance at these is not sufficient; it was also necessary to
understand the theology on which this cult is founded. This one,
explained by a very specious theology, like most others, is composed of
dogmas called the principles of 1789; they were proclaimed, indeed, at
that date, having been previously formulated by Jean-Jacques
Rousseau:
* The well known sovereignty of the people.
* The