Ancient Regime

Hippolyte Taine

Description

pubOne.info present you this new edition. Why should we fetch Taine's work up from its dusty box in the basement of the national library? First of all because his realistic views of our human nature, of our civilization and of socialism as well as his dark premonitions of the 20th century were proven correct. Secondly because we may today with more accuracy call his work

Informations

• Publié par: Pub One Info
• Date de parution: 06 novembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782819941774
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE ORIGINS OF CONTEMPORARY FRANCE, VOLUME 1
THE ANCIENT REGIME
by Hippolyte A. Taine
Text Transcriber's Note: The numbering of Volumes,Books, Chapters
and Sections are as in the French not the Americanedition.
Annotations by the transcriber are initialledSR.
Svend Rom, April 2000.
HTML Producer's Note: Footnote numbering has beenchanged to
include as a prefix to the original footnote number,the book and
chapter numbers. A table of contents has been addedwith active
links.
David Widger, June 2008
INTRODUCTION
Why should we fetch Taine's work up from its dustybox in the basement of the national library? First of all becausehis realistic views of our human nature, of our civilization and ofsocialism as well as his dark premonitions of the 20th century wereproven correct. Secondly because we may today with more accuracycall his work:
“The Origins of Popular Democracy and of Communism.”
His lucid analysis of the current ideology remainsas interesting or perhaps even more interesting than when it waswritten especially because we cannot accuse him of being part inour current political and ideological struggle.
Even though I found him wise, even though heconfirmed my own impressions from a rich and varied life, eventhough I considered that our children and the people at largeshould benefit from his insights into the innermost recesses of thepolitical Man, I still felt it would be best to find out why hiswork had been put on the index by the French and largely forgottenby the Anglo-Saxon world. So I consulted a contemporary Frenchauthority, Jean-François Revel who mentions Taine works in hisbook, “La Connaissance Inutile. ” (Paris 1988). Revel notes that asocialist historian, Alphonse Aulard methodically and dishonestlyattacked “Les Origines. . ”, and that Aulard was speciallyrecruited by the University of Sorbonne for this purpose. Aulardpretended that Taine was a poor historian by finding a number oferrors in Taine's work. This was done, says Revel, because the'Left' came to see Taine's work as “a vile counter-revolutionaryweapon. ” The French historian Augustin Cochin proved, however,that Aulard and not Taine had made the errors but by that timeTaine had been defamed and his works removed from the shelves ofthe French universities.
Now Taine was not a professional historian. Perhapsthis was as well since most professional historians, even whenconscientious and accurate, rarely are in a position to beindependent. They generally work for a university, for a nationalpublic or for the ministry of education and their books, onceapproved, may gain a considerable income once millions of pupilsare compelled to acquire these.
Taine initially became famous, not as a professionalhistorian but as a literary critic and journalist. His fame allowedhim to sell his books and articles and make a comfortable livingwithout cow-towing to any government or university. He wrote as hesaw fit, truthfully, even though it might displease a number ofpowerful persons.
Taine did not pretend to be a regular historian, butrather someone enquiring into the history of Public Authorities andtheir supporters. Through his comments he appears not only as adecent person but also as a psychologist and seer. He describesmankind, as I know it from my life in institutions, at sea andabroad in a large international organization. He describes mankindas it was, as it was seen by Darwin in 'THE EXPRESSIONS OF EMOTIONSIN MAN AND ANIMALS. Taine described the human being as he was andis and had the courage to tell the French about themselves, theirancient rulers, and the men of the Revolution, even if it wentagainst the favorable opinion so many of his countrymen had of thisterrible period. His understanding of our evolution, of mankind andof the evolution of society did not find favor with men whobelieved that they in the socialist ideology had found the solutionto all social ills. Only recently has science begun to return toDarwin in order to rediscover the human being as Taine knew him.You can find Taine's views of humanity confirmed in Robert Wright'sbook 'THE MORAL ANIMAL. ' (Why we are the way we are. )
Taine had full access to the files of the FrenchNational archives and these and other original documents. Taine hadreceived a French classical education and, being foremost amongmany brilliant men, had a capacity for study and work which we nolonger demand from our young. He accepted Man and society, as theyappeared to him, he described his findings without compassion forthe hang-ups of his prejudiced countrymen. He described Man as agregarious animal living for a brief spell in a remote corner ofspace, whose different cultures and nations had evolved haphazardlyin time, carried along by forces and events exceeding ourcomprehension, blindly following their innate drives. These driveswere followed with cunning but rarely with far-sighted wisdom.Taine, the prophet, has more than ever something to tell us. Hewarned his countrymen against themselves, their humanity, and henceagainst their fears, anxieties, greed, ambitions, conceit andexcessive imagination. His remarks and judgments exhort us to beresponsible, modest and kind and to select wise and modest leaders.He warns us against young hungry men's natural desire to massbehind a tribune and follow him onwards, they hope, along the highroad to excitement, fame, power and riches. He warns us against ourreadiness to believe in myth and metaphysics, demonstrating how Manwill believe anything, even the most mystical or incomprehensiblereligion or ideology, provided it is preached by his leaders.History, as seen by Taine, is one long series of such adventuresand horrors and nowhere was this more evident than in Francebefore, during and after the Revolution in 1789.
Taine became, upon reading 'On the Origins of theSpecies' a convinced Darwinian and was, the year after Darwin,honored by the University of Oxford with the title of doctorhonoris causa in jure civili for his 'History of EnglishLiterature'. Taine was not a methodical ideologist creating asystem. He did not defend any particular creed or current. He wasconsidered some kind of positivist but he did not consider himselfas belonging to any particular school.
The 6 volumes of “Les Origines de la FranceContemporaine” appeared one after the other in Paris between 1875and 1893. They were translated into English and published in NewYork soon afterwards. They were also translated into German.Taine's direct views displeased many in France, as the Royalists,the bonapartist and the Socialists felt hurt. Still, the firstedition of Volume II of “LE RÉGIME MODERNE” published by Hachettein 1894 indicated that “L'ANCIEN REGIME” at that time had beenprinted in 18 editions, “LA RÉVOLUTION” volume I in 17 editions,volume II in 16 editions and volume III in 13 editions. “LE RÉGIMEMODERNE” volume I had been printed in only 8 editions. Photographicreprints appeared in the US in 1932 and 1962.
Taine's description and analysis of events in Francebetween 1750 and 1870 are, as you will see colorful, lucid, andsometimes intense. His style might today appear dated since hewrites in rather long sentences, using parables to drive his pointsfirmly home. His books were widely read in academic circles andtherefore influenced a great many political students in the late19th and early 20th centuries. Lenin, who came to Paris around1906, might well have profited by Taine's analysis. Hitler is alsolikely to have profited by his insights. Lenin was like so manyother socialists of his day a great admirer of Robespierre and hisparty and would undoubtedly have tried to find out how Robespierregot into power and why he lost his hold on France the way he did.Part of Taine's art was to place himself into the place of thedifferent people and parties who took part in the great events.When pretends to speak for the Jacobins, it so convincingly done,that it is hard to know whether he speaks on 'their' behalf orwhether he is, in fact, quoting one of them.
Taine, like the Napoleon he described, believed thatin order to understand people you are aided if you try to imagineyourself in their place. This procedure, as well as his painstakingresearch, make his descriptions of the violent events of the pastring true.
Taine knew and described the evil inherent in humannature and in the crowd. His warnings and explanations did notprevent Europe from repeating the mistakes of the past. The 20thcentury saw a replay of the French Revolution repeated in all itshorror when Lenin, Mao, Hoxa, and Pol Pot followed the its scriptand when Stalin and Hitler made good use of Napoleon's example.
Taine irritated the elite of the 3rd French republicas well as everyone who believed in the popular democracy based onone person one vote. You can understand when you read the followingpreface which was actually placed in front of “The Revolution”volume II. Since it clarifies Taine's aims and justifications, Ihave moved and placed it below.
Not long before his death Taine, sensing that hiswisdom and deep insights into human nature and events, no longerinterested the élite, remarked to a friend that “the scientifictruth about the human animal is perhaps unacceptable except for avery few”. 0001 Now, 100 years later, after a century ofideological wars between ambitious men, I am afraid that thesituation remains unchanged. Mankind remains reluctant to face therealities of our uncontrolled existence! A few men begin, however,to share my misgivings about the future of a system which hascompletely given up the respect for wisdom and experiencepreferring a system of elaborate human rights and new morals. Thereis reason to recall Macchiavelli's words:
“In times of difficulty men of merit are soughtafter, but in easy times it is not men of merit, but such as haveriches and powerful relations, that are most in favor. ”
And let me to quote the Greek historian Polybius'observations0002 about the cyclic e