For this reason, now that he is warned, if he
persists in his resistance, he is a criminal and merits every kind of
chastisements[25], for, he declares himself a rebel and a perjurer,
inimical to humanity, and a traitor to the social compact.
IV.
Two distortions of the natural man. - Positive religion. -
Proscription of the orthodox cult. - Measures against unsworn
priests. - Measures against the loyal orthodox. - Destruction of the
constitutional cult. - Pressure on the sworn priests. - Churches
closed and ceremonies suppressed. - Continuation of these
persecutions until the Consulate.
Let us (Taine lets the Jacobin say) begin by figuring to ourselves the
natural man; certainly we of to-day have some difficulty in
recognizing him; he bears but little resemblance to the artificial
being who (in 1789) stands in his shoes, the creature which an
antiquated system of constraint and fraud has deformed, held fast in
his hereditary harness of thralldom and superstition, blinded by his
religion and held in check by prestige, exploited by his government
and tamed by dint of blows, always with a halter on, always put to
work in the wrong way and against nature, whatever stall he may
occupy, high or low, however full or empty his crib may be, now in
menial service like the blinded hack-horse turning the mill-wheel, and
now on parade like a trained dog which, decked with flags, shows off
its antics before the public.
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