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Taine, Hippolyte, 1828-1893

"The French Revolution - Volume 3"


As to the others, already Jacobin, the faction takes it upon itself to
render them still more so. -- Lost in the immensity of Paris, all
these provincials require moral as well as physical guides; it agrees
to exercise toward them "hospitality in all its plenitude, the
sweetest of Republican virtues."[28] Hence, ninety-six sans-culottes,
selected from among the sections, wait on them at the Mayoralty to
serve as their correspondents, and perhaps as their guarantees, and
certainly as pilots
* to give them lodging-tickets,
* to escort and install them,
* to indoctrinate them, as formerly with the federates of July, 1792,
* to prevent their getting into bad company,
* to introduce them into all the exciting meetings,
* to see that their ardent patriotism quickly rises to the proper
temperature of Parisian Jacobinism.[29]
The theaters must not offend their eyes or ears with pieces "opposed
to the spirit of the Revolution."[30] An order is issued for the
performance three times a week of "republican tragedies, such as
'Brutus', 'William Tell', 'Caius Gracchus,' and other dramas suitable
for the maintenance of the principles of equality and liberty.


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