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Taine, Hippolyte, 1828-1893

"The French Revolution - Volume 3"

- Conditions of the operation. -
Available resources. - Cases in which these are not available. -
Case of the holder of these being no longer disposed to make them.
Suppose a man forced to walk with his feet in the air and his head
downward. By using extremely energetic measures he might, for a
while, be made to maintain this unwholesome attitude, and certainly at
the expense of a bruised or broken skull; it is very probable,
moreover, that he would use his feet convulsively and kick terribly.
But it is certain that if this course were persisted in, the man would
experience intolerable pain and finally sink down; the blood would
stop circulating and suffocation would ensue; the trunk and limbs
would suffer as much as the head, and the feet would become numb and
inert. - Such is more or less the history of France under its Jacobin
pedagogues; their rigid theory and persistent brutality impose on the
nation an attitude against nature; consequently she suffers, and each
day suffers more and more; the paralysis increases; the functions get
out of order and cease to act, while the last and principal one,[1]
the most urgent, namely, physical support and the daily nourishment of
the living individual, is so badly accomplished, against so many
obstacles, interruptions, uncertainties and deficiencies, that the
patient, reduced to extreme want, asks if to-morrow will not be worse
than to-day, and whether his semi-starvation will not end in complete
starvation.


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