The Origins of Contemporary France

4 -.-t . It !h-wasafci!iBi4U»a>»BM~¥fi8SMfcfa»^ I.LKli "res CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME Of THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1 89 1 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE CORNfUL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 082 179 700 The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924082179700 TAINE'S VV^ORKS. Uniform Library Edition, izmo. Green Cloth, #2.50 per volume. ENGLISH LITERATURE. 3 vols. ON INTELLIGENCE, z vols. LECTURES ON ART. First Series. Contain- ing The Philosophy of Art ; The Ideal in Art. LECTURES ON ART. Second Series. Con- Phi- taining The Philosophy of Art m Italy ; The losophy of Art in the Netherlands; The Philosophy of Art in Greece. NOTES ON ENGLAND. With Portrait. NOTES ON PARIS. A TOUR THROUGH THE PYRENEES. (The Same. Illustrated by Gustave Dore. 8vo, cloth, $10.00; full morocco, $20.00.) ITALY, ROME, AND NAPLES. ITALY, FLORENCE, AND VENICE. THE ANCIENT REGIME. HENRY HOLT & CO., Publishers, 25 Bond Street, New York. Y Tim ORIGINS OF CONTEMPORARY FRANCE THE ANCIENT REGIME HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE •Author of " A History of English Literature," "Italy," etc. TRANS LA TED B JOHN DURAND. NEW YORJi HENRY HOLT ,AND QOMPAJjJY lit \J.l COPTBISHT, ]S7(), BT HENRY HOLT. John F. Trow & Son STEKUOTYPHRS AND PRIN'reBS 205-213 Hast 12//, Si., NEIV >ORK. NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR. In the title of this work, L'Ancien Regime, I have translated the French -word aneien by the English word "ancient," not because the latter accurately expresses the meaning of the former, but because the French term anden, as here used, implies not merely an old but a special regime ; and because since the publication of De Tocqueville's work, LAncien Regime et la Revolution, the term "ancient" applied to regime seems a naturalized translation of ancien, through its frequent use in conversation, as well as in print ; lastly, because Webster seems to sanction the translation of ancien by " ancient" in giving the French term as one of the etymological sources of the English term. J. D. PREFACE. In 1849, being twenty-one years of age, I was an elector and was very much perplexed ; for I had to participate in the election of fifteen or twenty deputies and, moreover, according to French practice, to select not only men but to discriminate as to theories. It was optional with me to be royalist or republican, democrat or conservative, socialist or Bonapartist; I was neither, nor even anything at all, and, at times, I envied so many people of faith who had the good fortune to be something. After hearing the various doctrines I felt there was undoubtedly some void in my mind. Motives valid for others not for , I were so me ; could not understand how, in politics, one could make up his mind according to his predilections. Peremptory advisers constructed a constitution as if it were a house, according to the most attractive, the newest and the simplest plan, holding up for consideration the mansion of a marquis, the domicile of a bour- geois, a tenement for workmen, barracks for soldiers, the communist philanstery and even a camp for savages. Each one asserted of his model: "This is the true abode of man, the only one a man of sense can dwell in." In my opinion, the argument was weak J personal fancies, in my judgment, are not authorities. It appears to me that a house might not be built for the architect, nor for itself, but for the owner and occupant. To ask the opinion of the owner, to submit plans to the French people of its future dwelling, was too evidently a parade or a deception : in such cases the question is tantamount to the answer, and besides. vi PREFACE. had this answer been unconditioned, France was scarcely more cannot at Hberty to give it than I was ; ten million ignorant men constitute a wise one. _A-pe^ple, on being consulted, xnay, indeed, tell the form of government they like, but not the form is they needj.this is possible only through experience; time du- required to ascertain if- the political dwelling is convenient, rable, proof against inclemencies, suited to the occupant's habits, pursuits, character, pecuharities and caprices. Now, as proof of this, we have never been content with our own; within eighty years we have pulled it down thirteen times in order to rebuild it, and this we have done in vain, not having yet found one that suits us. If other people have been more fortunate, if, in other countries, many political institutions are durable and last indefi- nitely it is because they have been organized in a peculiar manner, around a primitive and massive nucleus, supported on some old central edifice, many times repaired but always preserved, en- larged by degrees, adapted and modified according to the wants of the inhabitants. None of them were built at one stroke, on a new pattern, and according to the provisions of reason alone. We must, perhaps, admit that there is no other way of building permanently and that the sudden concoction of a new constitution, suitable and durable, is an undertaking surpassing the forces of the human mind. In any event, I came to the conclusion that if we should ever discover the one we need it will not be by the means in practice. The point is to discover it, if it exists, and not to put it to vote. In this respect, our preferences would be fruitless ; nature and history have chosen for us in advance ; it is for us to adapt ourselves to them, as it is certain they wOl not accommodate themselves to us. The social and political mould into which a nation may enter and remain is not subject to its will, but determined by its character and its past. It is essential that, even in its least traits, it should be shaped on the living traits to which it is applied ; otherwise it will burst and fall to pieces. Hence, if we should succeed in finding ours, it will only be through a study of ourselves, while the more we understand PREFACE. vii exactly what we are the more certainly will we distinguish what best suits us. We ought, therefore, to reverse the ordinary meth- ods and form some conception of the nation before formulating its constitution. Doubtless the first operation is much more tedious and difficult than the second. How much time, how much study, how many observations rectified one by the other, how many researches in the past and the present, over all the domains of thought and of action, what manifold and secular labors to acquire an accurate and complete idea of a great people which has lived a people's age and which still lives ! But it is the* only means of avoiding error after having reasoned on nothing, and I promised myself that, for my own part, if I should some day undertake to form a political opinion, it would be only after having studied France. What is contemporary France ? To answer this question we must know how this France is formed, or, what is still better, to act as spectator at its formation. At the end of the last century, like a moulting insect, it underwent a metamorphosis. Its ancient organization was dissolved; it tears away its most pre-' cious tissues and falls into convulsions which seem mortal. Then, after multipHed throes and a painful lethargy, she re-establishes /herself. But her organization is no longer^he same : by silent interior travail a new being is^ substituted for th^ old. In 1808, its leading characteristics are decreed and defined : departments, arondissements, cantons and communes, no change has since taken place in its exterior divisions and functions; Concordat, Code, Tribunals, University, Institute, Prefets, Council of State, Taxes, Collectors, Cours des Comptes, a uniform and centralized administration, its principal organs, are still the same ; nobility, commoners, artisans, peasants, each class has henceforth the position, the sentiments, the traditions which we see at the present day. Thus the new creature is at once stable and complete; consequently its structure, its instincts and its faculties mark in advance the circle within which its thought and its action will be stimulated. Around it, other nations, some precocious, — viii PREFACE. with hettei others backward, all with greater cautiousness, some transfers success, operate in like manner the transformation which the gesta- them from the feudal to the modern order of things; beneath the new tion is universal and all but simultaneous. But, of the forms as beneath the ancient, the weak is always the prey surrenders strong. Woe to those whose too lingering evolution chrysalis them to the neighbor suddenly emancipated from his likewise to him state and the first to go forth fully armed ! Woe whose too violent and too abrupt evolution has badly balanced his his internal economy, and who, through the exaggeration of governing apparatus, through the deterioration of his deep-seated organs, through the gradual impoverishment of his vital tissues is doomed to inconsiderate acts, to debility, to impotency, amidst sounder and better balanced neighbors! In the organization which France effected for herself at the beginning of the century, all the general lines of her contemporary history were traced, pohtical revolutions, social Utopias, division of classes, pohcy of the church, conduct of the nobility, of the commonalty, and of the people, the development, the direction, or deviation of philosophy, of letters and of the arts.

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