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Taine, Hippolyte, 1828-1893

"The French Revolution - Volume 3"

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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.


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