The French Revolution, vol 3 | Page 3

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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 rights of Man.
* The social contract.
Once adopted, their practical results unfolded themselves naturally. In three years these dogmas installed the crocodile on the purple carpet insides the sanctuary behind the golden veil. He was selected for the place on account of the energy of his jaws and the capacity of his stomach; he became a god through his qualities as a destructive brute and man-eater. -- Comprehending this, the rites which consecrate him and the pomp which surrounds him need not give us any further concern. -- We can observe him, like any ordinary animal, and study his various attitudes, as he lies in