parts bore down too heavily on the lower ones; the sorting; at least;
which goes on in every civilized State; constantly separating the
wheat from the chaff; went on tolerably well; except at the center and
at the Court; where the winnowing machine had worked haphazard and;
frequently; in an opposite sense for a century; the separation
proceeded regularly; undoubtedly slower; but; perhaps; more equitably
than in our contemporary democracy。 The chance that a notable by
right could become a notable de facto was then much greater: it was
less difficult; and the inclination to found; maintain and perpetuate
a family or a business was much stronger; people looked more often
beyond themselves; the eyes naturally turned outside the narrow circle
of one's personality; looking backward as well as beyond this present
life。 The (later) institution of an equal partition of property; the
(later) system of obligatory partition and the rule of partition in
kind; with other prescriptions of the (new) civil code; did not split
up an heritage and ruin the home。'84' Parental negligence and the
children's lack of respect and consideration had not yet upset the
authority and abolished respect in the family。 Useful and natural
associations were not yet stifled in the germ nor arrested in their
development by the systematic hostility of the law。 The ease and
cheapness of transportation; the promiscuity of schools; the
excitement of competition; everyone's rush to placement and office;
the increasing excitement of ambition and greed; had not (yet)
immeasurably multiplied the class of irresponsible malcontents and
mischievous nomads。 In the political order of things; inaptitude;
envy; brutality were not sovereign; universal suffrage did not exclude
from power the men; born; bred and qualified to exercise it; countless
public posts were not offered as a prey to charlatanism and to the
intrigues of politicians。 France was not then; as now…a…days; on a
way to become a vast lodging…house administered by casual managers;
condemned to periodical failures; inhabited by anonymous residents;
indifferent to each other; lacking local ties; lacking engagements and
having no corporate loyalties; merely tenants and passing consumers;
placed in numerical order around a common mess…table where each thinks
only of himself; gets served quickly; consumes what he can lay his
hands on; and ends by finding out that; in a place of this sort; the
best condition; the wisest course; is to put all one's property into
an annuity and live a bachelor。 … Formerly; among all classes and in
all the provinces; there were a large number of families that had
taken root on the spot; living there a hundred years and more。 Not
only among the nobles; but among the bourgeoisie and the Third…Estate;
the heir of any enterprise was expected to continue his calling。 This
was so with the seignorial chateau and extensive domain; as with the
bourgeois dwelling and patrimonial office; the humble rural domain;
farm; shop and factory; all were transmitted intact from one
generation to another。'85' Great or small; the individual was not
exclusively interested in himself; his thoughts also traveled forward
to the future and back to the past; on the side of ancestors and on
that of descendants; along the endless chain of which his own life was
but a link; he possessed traditions; he felt bound to set examples。
Under this twofold title; his domestic authority was uncontested;'86'
his household and all his employees followed his instructions without
swerving and without resistance。 When; by virtue of this domestic
discipline; a family had maintained itself upright and respected on
the same spot for a century; it could easily advance a degree; it
could introduce one of its members into the upper class; pass from the
plow or trade to petty offices; and from these to the higher ones and
to parliamentary dignities; from the four thousand posts that ennoble
to the legalized nobility; from the lately made nobles to the old
nobility。 Apart from the two or three thousand gilded drones living
on the public honey at Versailles; apart from the court parasites and
their valets; three or four hundred thousand notables and half…
notables of France thus acquired and kept their offices; consideration
and fortune; they were therefore their legitimate possessors。 The
peasant…proprietor and master…artisan had risen from father to son; at
four o'clock in the morning; toiled all day and never drank。 From
father to son; the trader; notary; lawyer and office…holder; had been
careful; economical; skillful and attentive to business; correct in
their papers; precise in their accounts。 From father to son; the
nobleman had served bravely; the parliamentarian had judged equitably;
as a point of honor; with a salary inferior to the interest of the sum
paid by him to acquire his rank or post。 Each of these men received
no more than his due; his possessions and his rank were the savings of
his ascendants; the price of social services rendered by the long file
of deserving dead; all that his ancestors; his father and himself had
created or preserved of any stable value; each piece of gold that
remained in the hereditary purse represented the balance of a
lifetime; the enduring labor of some one belonging to his line; while
among these gold pieces; he himself had provided his share。 … For;
personal services counted; even among the upper nobility; and all the
more among the lower class; in the Third…Estate; and among the people。
Among the notables of every degree just described; most of them; in
1789; were fully grown men; many of them mature; a goodly number
advanced in years; and some quite aged; consequently; in justification
of his rank and emoluments; or of his gains and his fortune; each
could allege fifteen; twenty; thirty and forty years of labor and
honorability in private or public situations; the grand…vicar of the
diocese as well as the chief…clerk of the ministry; the intendant of
the généralité as well as the president of the royal tribunal; the
village curé; the noble officer; the office…holder; the lawyer; the
procureur; the large manufacturer; the wholesale dealer; as well as
the well…to…do farmer; and the well…known handicraftsman。 … Thus; not
only were they an élite corps; the most valuable portion of the
nation; the best timber of the forest; but again; the wood of each
branch belonged to that trunk; it grew there; and was the product of
its own vegetation; it sprung out of the trunk wholly through the
unceasing and spontaneous effort of the native sap; through time…
honored and recent labor; and; on this account; it merited respect。 …
Through a double onslaught; at once against each human branch and
against the entire French forest; the Jacobin wood…choppers seek to
clear the ground。 Their theory results in this precept; that not one
of the noble trees of this forest; not one valuable trunk from the
finest oak to the smallest sapling; should be left standing。
VII。 Principle of socialist Equality。
All superiorities of rank are illegitimate。 … Bearing of this
principle。 … Incivique benefits and enjoyments。 … How revolutionary
laws reach the lower class。 … Whole populations affected in a mass。
… proportion of the lowly in the proscription lists。 How the
revolutionary laws specially affect those who are prominent among the
people。
Not that the ravages which they make stop there! The principle
extended far beyond that。 The fundamental rule; according to Jacobin
maxims; is that every public or private advantage which any citizen
enjoys and which is not enjoyed by another citizen; is illegitimate。
… On Vent?se 19; year II。; Henriot; general in command; having
surrounded the Palais Royal and made a sweep of 〃suspects;〃 renders an
account of his expedition as follows:'87' 〃One hundred and thirty
muscadins have been arrested。 。 。 。 These gentlemen are
transferred to the Petits…Pêres。 Being well…fed and plump; they
cannot be sans…culottes。〃 Henriot was right; for; to live well is
incivique。 Whoever lays in stores of provisions is criminal; even if
he has gone a good ways for them; even if he has not overpaid the
butcher of his quarter; even if he has not diminished by an ounce of
meat the ration of his neighbor; when he is found out; he is punished
and his hoard confiscated。 〃A citizen'88' had a little pig brought to
him from a place six leagues from Paris; and killed it at once。 Three
hours afterwards; the pig was seized by commissioners and distributed
among the people; without the owner getting a bit of it;〃 moreover;
the said owner 〃was imprisoned。〃 … He is a monopolist! To Jacobin
people; to empty stomachs; there is no greater crime; this misdeed; to
their imaginations; explains the arrest of Hébert; their favorite: 〃It
is said at the Halle (the covered Paris market)'89' that he has
monopolized a brother of the order of Saint…Antoine'90' as well as a
pot of twenty…five pounds of Brittany butter;〃 which is enough; they
immediately and 〃unanimously consign Père Duchesne to the guillotine。〃
(Note that the Père Duchesne; founded by Hébert; was the most radical
and revolutionary journal。 (SR。) … Of all privileges; accordingly;
that of having a supply of food is the most offensive; 〃it is now
necessary for one who has two dishes to give one of them to him who
has none;〃'91' every man who manages to eat more than another is a
robber; for; in the first place; he robs the community; the sole
legitimate owner of aliments; and next; he robs; and personally; all
who have less to eat than he has。
The same rule applies to other things of which the possession is
either agreeable or useful: in an equalizing social system; that now
established; every article of food possessed by one individual to the
exclusion of others; is a dish abstracted from the common table an
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