友情提示:如果本网页打开太慢或显示不完整,请尝试鼠标右键“刷新”本网页!阅读过程发现任何错误请告诉我们,谢谢!! 报告错误
飞读中文网 返回本书目录 我的书架 我的书签 TXT全本下载 进入书吧 加入书签

the origins of contemporary france-4-第137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!




intimacy。  Don the carmagnole and tremble; become rustics and dolts;

and prove your civism by the absence of all education。〃



This is true to the letter。



〃Education;'146' 〃 says another contemporary; 〃amiable qualities;

gentle ways; a mild physiognomy; bodily graces; a cultivated mind; all

natural endowments are henceforth the inevitable causes of

proscription。〃



One is self…condemned if one has not converted oneself into a sans…

culotte and proletarian; in accordance with affected modes; air;

language and dress。  Hence;



〃through a hypocritical contest hitherto unknown men who were not

vicious deemed it necessary to appear so。〃



And worse still;



 〃one was even afraid to be oneself; one changed one's name; one went

in disguise; wearing a vulgar and tasteless attire; everybody shrunk

from being what he was。〃



For; according to the Jacobin program; all Frenchmen must be

recast'147' in one uniform mold; they must be taken when small; all

must be subject to the same enforced education; that of a mechanic;

rustic and soldier's boy。  Be warned; ye adults; by the guillotine;

reform yourselves beforehand according to the prescribed pattern! No

more costly; elegant or delicate crystal or gold vases! All are

shattered or are still being shattered。  Henceforth; only common ware

is to be tolerated or ordered to be made; all alike in substance;

shape and color; manufactured by thousands at wholesale and in public

factories; for the common and plain uses of rural and military life;

all original and superior forms are to be rejected。



 〃The masters of the day;〃 writes Daunou;'148' 〃deliberately aimed

their sword thrusts at superior talent; at energetic characters; they

mowed down as well as they could in so short a time; the flower and

hope of the nation。〃



In this respect they were consistent; equality…socialism'149' allows

none but automatic citizens; mere tools in the hands of the State; all

alike; of a rudimentary fashion and easily managed; without personal

conscience; spontaneity; curiosity or integrity; whoever has

cultivated himself; whoever has thought for himself and exercised his

own will and judgment rises above the level and shakes off the yoke;

to obtain consideration; to be intelligent and honorable; to belong to

the élite; is to be anti…revolutionary。  In the popular club of Bourg…

en…Bresse;'150' Representative Javogues declared that;



 〃the Republic could be established only on the corpse of the last of

the respectable men。〃



X。   The Governors and the Governed。



Prisoners in the rue de Sévres and the 〃Croix…Rouge〃 revolutionary

committee。  … The young Dauphin and Simon his preceptor。  … Judges;

and those under their jurisdiction。  … Trenchard and Coffinhal;

Lavoisier and André Chénier。



Here we have; on one side; the élite of France; almost every person of

rank; fortune; family; and merit; those eminent for intelligence;

culture; talent and virtue; all deprived of common rights; in exile;

in prison; under pikes; and on the scaffold。  On the other side; those

above common law; possessing every office and omnipotent in the

irresponsible dictatorship; in the despotic proconsulships; in the

sovereignty of justice; a horde of the outcasts of all classes; the

parvenus of fanaticism; charlatanism; imbecility and crime。  Often;

when these personalities meet; one sees the contrast between the

governed and the governors in such strong relief that one almost

regards it as calculated and arranged beforehand; the colors and brush

of the painter; rather than words; are necessary to represent it。  In

the western section of Paris; in the prisons of the rue de Sévres'151'

the prisoners consist of the most distinguished personages of the

Quartier Saint Germain; prelates; officers; grand…seigniors; and noble

ladies; … … Monseigneur de Clermont…Tonnerre; Monseigneur de Crussol

d'Amboise; Monseigneur de Hersaint; Monseigneur de Saint Simon; bishop

of Agde; the Comtesse de Narbonne…Pelet; the Duchesse de Choiseul; the

Princesse de Chimay; the Comtesse de Raymond…Narbonne and her

daughter; two years of age; in short; the flower of that refined

society which Europe admired and imitated and which; in its exquisite

perfection; equalled or surpassed all that Greece; Rome and Italy had

produced in brilliancy; polish and amiability。  Contrast with these

the arbiters of their lives and deaths; the potentates of the same

quarter who issue the warrants of arrest against them; who pen them in

to speculate on them; and who revel at their expense and before their

eyes: these consist of the members of the revolutionary committee of

the Croix…Rouge; the eighteen convicted rogues and debauchees

previously described;'152' ex…cab…drivers; porters; cobblers; street…

messengers; stevedores; bankrupts; counterfeiters; former or future

jail…birds; all clients of the police or alms…house riff…raff。  … At

the other end of Paris; in the east; in the tower of the Temple;

separated from his sister and torn from his mother; still lives the

little Dauphin: no one in France merits more pity or respect than him。

For; if France exists; it is owing to the thirty…five military chiefs

and crowned kings of which he is the last direct scion; without their

thousand years of hereditary rule and preserving policy the intruders

into the Tuileries who have just profaned their tombs at St。  Denis

and thrown their bones into a common ditch;'153' would not be

Frenchmen。  At this moment; were suffrages free; the immense majority

of the people; nineteen Frenchmen out of twenty; would recognize this

innocent and precious child for their King; the heir of the people of

which their nation and country is formed; a child of eight years; of

rare precociousness; as intelligent as he is good; and of a gentle and

winning expression。  Look at the other figure alongside of him; his

fist raised and with insults on his lips; with a hang…dog face;

bloated with brandy; titular governor; official preceptor; and

absolute master of this child; the cobbler Simon; malignant; foul…

mouthed; mean in every way; forcing him to become intoxicated;

starving him; preventing him from sleeping; thrashing him; and who;

obeying orders; instinctively visits on him all his brutality and

corruption that he may pervert; degrade and deprave him。'154' … In the

Palais de Justice; midway between the tower of the Temple and the

prison in the rue de Sèvres; an almost similar contrast; transposing

the merits and demerits; daily brings together in opposition the

innocent with the vile。  There are days when the contrast; still more

striking; seats criminals on the judges' bench and judges on the bench

of criminals。  On the first and second of Floréal; the old

representatives and trustees of liberty under the monarchy; twenty…

five magistrates of the Paris and Toulouse parliaments; many of them

being eminent intellects of the highest culture and noblest character;

embrac
返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0
未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
温馨提示: 温看小说的同时发表评论,说出自己的看法和其它小伙伴们分享也不错哦!发表书评还可以获得积分和经验奖励,认真写原创书评 被采纳为精评可以获得大量金币、积分和经验奖励哦!