The Ancient Regime
Text Transcriber's Note : The numbering of Volumes, Books, Chapters and Sections are as in the French not the American edition. Annotations by the transcriber are initialled SR. Svend Rom, April 2000.
HTML Producer's Note : Footnote numbering has been changed to include as a prefix to the original footnote number, the book and chapter numbers. A table of contents has been added with active links. David Widger, June 2008
Why should we fetch Taine's work up from its dusty box in the basement of the national library? First of all because his realistic views of our human nature, of our civilization and of socialism as well as his dark premonitions of the 20th century were proven correct. Secondly because we may today with more accuracy call his work:
The Origins of Popular Democracy and of Communism.
His lucid analysis of the current ideology remains as interesting or perhaps even more interesting than when it was written especially because we cannot accuse him of being part in our current political and ideological struggle.
Even though I found him wise, even though he confirmed my own impressions from a rich and varied life, even though I considered that our children and the people at large should benefit from his insights into the innermost recesses of the political Man, I still felt it would be best to find out why his work had been put on the index by the French and largely forgotten by the Anglo-Saxon world. So I consulted a contemporary French authority, Jean-François Revel who mentions Taine works in his book, La Connaissance Inutile. (Paris 1988). Revel notes that a socialist historian, Alphonse Aulard methodically and dishonestly attacked Les Origines.. , and that Aulard was specially recruited by the University of Sorbonne for this purpose. Aulard pretended that Taine was a poor historian by finding a number of errors in Taine's work. This was done, says Revel, because the 'Left' came to see Taine's work as a vile counter-revolutionary weapon. The French historian Augustin Cochin proved, however, that Aulard and not Taine had made the errors but by that time Taine had been defamed and his works removed from the shelves of the French universities.
Hippolyte Taine
THE ORIGINS OF CONTEMPORARY FRANCE, VOLUME 1
THE ANCIENT REGIME
INTRODUCTION
PREFACE:
THE ANCIENT REGIME
PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR: ON POLITICAL IGNORANCE AND WISDOM.
BOOK FIRST. THE STRUCTURE OF THE ANCIENT SOCIETY.
CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN OF PRIVILEGES.
I. Services and Recompenses of the Clergy.
II. Services and Recompenses of the Nobles.
III. Services and Recompenses of the King.
CHAPTER II. THE PRIVILEGED CLASSES.
I. Number of the Privileged Classes.
II. Their Possessions, Capital, and Revenue.
III. Their Immunities.
IV. Their Feudal Rights.
These advantages are the remains of primitive sovereignty.
V. They may be justified by local and general services.
CHAPTER III. LOCAL SERVICES DUE BY THE PRIVILEGED CLASSES.
II. Resident Seigniors.
III. Absentee Seigniors.
CHAPTER IV. PUBLIC SERVICES DUE BY THE PRIVILEGED CLASSES.
I. England compared to France.
II. The Clergy
III. Influence of the Nobles.
IV. Isolation of the Chiefs
V. The King's Incompetence and Generosity.
VI. Latent Disorganization in France.
BOOK SECOND. MORALS AND CHARACTERS.
CHAPTER I. MORAL PRINCIPLES UNDER THE ANCIENT REGIME.
The Court and a life of pomp and parade.
I. Versailles.
The Physical aspect and the moral character of Versailles.
II. The King's Household.
III. The King's Associates.
IV. Everyday Life In Court.
V. Royal Distractions.
VI. Upper Class Distractions.
VII. Provincial Nobility.
I. Perfect only in France
II. Social Life Has Priority.
III. Universal Pleasure Seeking.
IV. Enjoyment.
V. Happiness.
VI. Gaiety.
VII. Theater, Parade And Extravagance.
CHAPTER III. DISADVANTAGES OF THIS DRAWING ROOM LIFE.
I. Its Barrenness and Artificiality
II. Return To Nature And Sentiment.
III. Personality Defects.
BOOK THIRD. THE SPIRIT AND THE DOCTRINE.
CHAPTER I. SCIENTIFIC ACQUISITION.
I. Scientific Progress.
II. Science Detached From Theology.
III. The Transformation Of History.
IV. The New Psychology.
V. The Analytical Method.
CHAPTER II. THE CLASSIC SPIRIT, THE SECOND ELEMENT.
I. Through Colored Glasses.
II. Its Original Deficiency.
III. The Mathematical Method.
CHAPTER III. COMBINATION OF THE TWO ELEMENTS.
I. Birth Of A Doctrine, A Revelation.
II. Ancestral Tradition And Culture.
III. Reason At War With Illusion.
IV. Casting Out The Residue Of Truth And Justice.
V. The Dream Of A Return To Nature.
VI. The Abolition Of Society. Rousseau.
VII: The Lost Children.
CHAPTER IV. ORGANIZING THE FUTURE SOCIETY.
I. Liberty, Equality And Sovereignty Of The People.
II. Naive Convictions
III. Our True Human Nature.
IV. Birth Of Socialist Theory, Its Two Sides.
V. Social Contract, Summary.
BOOK FOURTH. THE PROPAGATION OF THE DOCTRINE.
I. The Propagating Organ, Eloquence.
II. Its Method.
Owing to this method it becomes popular.
III. Its Popularity.
IV. The Masters.
CHAPTER II. THE FRENCH PUBLIC.
I. The Nobility.
II. Conditions In France.
III. French Indolence.
IV. Unbelief.
V. Political Opposition.
VI. Well-Meaning Government.
CHAPTER III. THE MIDDLE CLASS.
I. The Past.
II. CHANGE IN THE CONDITION OF THE BOURGEOIS.
III. Social Promotion.
IV. Rousseau's Philosophy Spreads And Takes HOLD.
V. Revolutionary Passions.
VI. Summary
BOOK FIFTH. THE PEOPLE
CHAPTER I. HARDSHIPS.
I. Privations.
II. The Peasants.
III. The Countryside.
Aspects of the country and of the peasantry.
IV. The Peasant Becomes Landowner.
CHAPTER II. TAXATION THE PRINCIPAL CAUSE OF MISERY.
I. Extortion.
II. Local Conditions.
III. The Common Laborer.
Four direct taxes on the common laborer.
V. Indirect Taxes.
The salt-tax and the excise.
VI. Burdens And Exemptions.
Why taxation is so burdensome.—Exemptions and privileges.
VII. Municipal Taxation.
CHAPTER III. INTELLECTUAL STATE OF THE PEOPLE.
I. Intellectual incapacity
II. Political incapacity
III. Destructive impulses
IV. Insurrectionary leaders and recruits
CHAPTER IV. THE ARMED FORCES.
I. Military force declines
II. The social organization is dissolved
III.--Direction of the current
CHAPTER V. SUMMARY.
I. Suicide of the Ancient Regime.
II.--Aspirations for the 'Great Revolution.'
END OF VOLUME
NOTE 1.