Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature - 3. The Reaction in France

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature, Vol. III (of 6) The Reaction in France, by Georg Brandes, Translated by Mary Morison

ROBESPIERRE
Hätt 'ich gezaudert zu werden, Bis man mir's Leben gegönnt. Ich wäre noch nicht auf Erden Wie Ihr begreifen könnt. Wenn Ihr seht, wie sie sich geberden. —GOETHE.
There is no philosophy possible where fear of consequences is a stronger principle than love of truth. —JOHN STUART MILL.
INTRODUCTION
A certain aggregation of personages, actions, emotions and moods, ideas and works, which make their appearance in France, find expression in the French language, and influence French society at the beginning of the nineteenth century, form in my eyes a naturally coherent group, from the fact that they all centre round one idea, namely, the re-establishment of a fallen power. This fallen power is the principle of authority.
By the principle of authority I understand the principle which assumes the life of the individual and of the nation to be based upon reverence for inherited tradition.
That power which is its essential quality, authority owes simply to its own existence, not to reason; it is a result of the involuntary or voluntary subjection of men's minds to existing conditions. Authority had originally only two instruments at its disposal, compulsion and fear, instruments which it will always retain and use; but at an early age it began to call forth such feelings as reverence and gratitude. Men were not ashamed of, did not suffer from, their dependence on authority, when they felt that they owed an obligation to it. The authority of the family, the authority of society, the authority of the state (long synonymous with the will of the despotic ruler) gradually asserted themselves, and supported themselves, one and all, upon a still higher authority, the authority of religion. In it the principle of authority reaches the absolute stage. The will of the Almighty becomes the supreme law, to which all must bow and which must be blindly obeyed.