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the ancien regime-第14章

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that decay and that growth a bond of cause and effect where there is

really none。  The general decay may have determined the course of

many men's thoughts; but it no more set them thinking than (as I

have heard said) the decay of the Ancien Regime produced the new

Regimea loose metaphor; which; like all metaphors; will not hold

water; and must not be taken for a philosophic truth。  That would be

to confess manwhat I shall never confess him to bethe creature

of circumstances; it would be to fall into the same fallacy of

spontaneous generation as did the ancients; when they believed that

bees were bred from the carcass of a dead ox。  In the first place;

the bees were no bees; but fliesunless when some true swarm of

honey bees may have taken up their abode within the empty ribs; as

Samson's bees did in that of the lion。  But bees or flies; each

sprang from an egg; independent of the carcass; having a vitality of

its own:  it was fostered by the carcass it fed on during

development; but bred from it it was not; any more than Marat was

bred from the decay of the Ancien Regime。  There are flies which; by

feeding on putridity; become poisonous themselves; as did Marat:

but even they owe their vitality and organisation to something

higher than that on which they feed; and each of them; however;

defaced and debased; was at first a 〃thought of God。〃  All true

manhood consists in the defiance of circumstances; and if any man be

the creature of circumstances; it is because he has become so; like

the drunkard; because he has ceased to be a man; and sunk downward

toward the brute。



Accordingly we shall find; throughout the 18th century; a stirring

of thought; an originality; a resistance to circumstances; an

indignant defiance of circumstances; which would have been

impossible; had circumstances been the true lords and shapers of

mankind。  Had that latter been the case; the downward progress of

the Ancien Regime would have been irremediable。  Each generation;

conformed more and more to the element in which it lived; would have

sunk deeper in dull acquiescence to evil; in ignorance of all

cravings save those of the senses; and if at any time intolerable

wrong or want had driven it to revolt; it would have issued; not in

the proclamation of new and vast ideas; but in an anarchic struggle

for revenge and bread。



There are races; alas! which seem; for the present at least;

mastered by circumstances。  Some; like the Chinese; have sunk back

into that state; some; like the negro in Africa; seem not yet to

have emerged from it; but in Europe; during the eighteenth century;

were working not merely new forces and vitalities (abstractions

which mislead rather than explain); but living persons in plenty;

men and women; with independent and original hearts and brains;

instinct; in spite of all circumstances; with power which we shall

most wisely ascribe directly to Him who is the Lord and Giver of

Life。



Such persons seemedI only say seemedmost numerous in England and

in Germany。  But there were enough of them in France to change the

destiny of that great nation for awhileperhaps for ever。



M。 de Tocqueville has a whole chapter; and a very remarkable one;

which appears at first sight to militate against my beliefa

chapter 〃showing that France was the country in which men had become

most alike。〃



〃The men;〃 he says; 〃of that time; especially those belonging to the

upper and middle ranks of society; who alone were at all

conspicuous; were all exactly alike。〃



And it must be allowed; that if this were true of the upper and

middle classes; it must have been still more true of the mass of the

lowest population; who; being most animal; are always most moulded

or rather crushedby their own circumstances; by public opinion;

and by the wants of five senses; common to all alike。



But when M。 de Tocqueville attributes this curious fact to the

circumstances of their political stateto that 〃government of one

man which in the end has the inevitable effect of rendering all men

alike; and all mutually indifferent to their common fate〃we must

differ; even from him:  for facts prove the impotence of that; or of

any other circumstance; in altering the hearts and souls of men; in

producing in them anything but a mere superficial and temporary

resemblance。



For all the while there was; among these very French; here and there

a variety of character and purpose; sufficient to burst through that

very despotism; and to develop the nation into manifold; new; and

quite original shapes。  Thus it was proved that the uniformity had

been only in their outside crust and shell。  What tore the nation to

pieces during the Reign of Terror; but the boundless variety and

originality of the characters which found themselves suddenly in

free rivalry?  What else gave to the undisciplined levies; the

bankrupt governments; the parvenu heroes of the Republic; a manifold

force; a self…dependent audacity; which made them the conquerors;

and the teachers (for good and evil) of the civilised world?  If

there was one doctrine which the French Revolution specially

proclaimedwhich it caricatured till it brought it into temporary

disreputeit was this:  that no man is like another; that in each

is a God…given 〃individuality;〃 an independent soul; which no

government or man has a right to crush; or can crush in the long

run:  but which ought to have; and must have; a 〃carriere ouverte

aux talents;〃 freely to do the best for itself in the battle of

life。  The French Revolution; more than any event since twelve poor

men set forth to convert the world some eighteen hundred years ago;

proves that man ought not to be; and need not be; the creature of

circumstances; the puppet of institutions; but; if he will; their

conqueror and their lord。



Of these original spirits who helped to bring life out of death; and

the modern world out of the decay of the mediaeval world; the French

PHILOSOPHES and encyclopaedists are; of course; the most notorious。

They confessed; for the most part; that their original inspiration

had come from England。  They were; or considered themselves; the

disciples of Locke; whose philosophy; it seems to me; their own acts

disproved。



And first; a few words on these same philosophes。  One may be

thoroughly aware of their deficiencies; of their sins; moral as well

as intellectual; and yet one may demand that everyone should judge

them fairlywhich can only be done by putting himself in their

place; and any fair judgment of them will; I think; lead to the

conclusion that they were not mere destroyers; inflamed with hate of

everything which mankind had as yet held sacred。  Whatever sacred

things they despised; one sacred thing they reverenced; which men

had forgotten more and more since the seventeenth centurycommon

justice and common humanity。  It was this; I believe; which gave

them their moral force。  It was this which drew towards them the

hearts; not merely of educated bourgeois and nobles (on the menu

peuple they had no influence; and did not care to have any); but of

every continental sovereign who felt in himself higher aspirations

than those of a mere selfish tyrantFrederick the Great; Christina

of Sweden; Joseph of Austria; and even that fallen Juno; Catharine

of Russia; with all her sins。  To take the most extreme instance

Voltaire。  We may question his being a philosopher at all。  We may

deny that he had even a tincture of formal philosophy。  We may doubt

much whether he had any of that human and humorous common sense;

which is often a good substitute for the philosophy of the schools。

We may feel against him a just and honest indignation when we

remember that he dared to travestie into a foul satire the tale of

his country's purest and noblest heroine; but we must recollect; at

the same time; that he did a public service to the morality of his

own country; and of all Europe; by his indignationquite as just

and honest as any which we may feelat the legal murder of Calas。

We must recollect that; if he exposes baseness and foulness with too

cynical a license of speech (in which; indeed; he sinned no more

than had the average of French writers since the days of Montaigne);

he at least never advocates them; as did Le Sage。  We must recollect

that; scattered throughout his writings; are words in favour of that

which is just; merciful; magnanimous; and even; at times; in favour

of that which is pure; which proves that in Voltaire; as in most

men; there was a double selfthe one sickened to cynicism by the

iniquity and folly which he saw around himthe other; hungering

after a nobler life; and possibly exciting that hunger in one and

another; here and there; who admired him for other reasons than the

educated mob; which cried after him 〃Vive la Pucelle。〃



Rousseau; too。  Easy it is to feel disgust; contempt; for the

〃Confessions〃 and the 〃Nouvelle Heloise〃for 
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