《旧制度与大革命·卷一·第五章·法国革命究竟成就了什么》第2节
However radical the Revolution may have been, its innovations were, in fact, much less than has been commonly supposed, as I shall show hereafter. What may truly be said is, that it entirely destroyed, or is still destroying (for it is not at an end), every part of the ancient state of society that owed its origin to aristocratic and feudal institutions--everything in any way connected with those institutions, or in any degree, however slight, imbued with their spirit. It spared no part of the old world, save such as had always been foreign to those institutions, or could exist apart from them. Least of all was the Revolution a fortuitous event. It took the world by surprise, it is true, but it was not the less the completion of a long process, the sudden and violent termination of a work which had successively passed before the eyes of ten generations. If it had not taken place, the old social structure would equally have fallen sooner in one place and later in another--only it would have crumbled away by degrees instead of falling with a crash. The Revolution effected on a sudden and by a violent and convulsive effort, without any transition, without forethought, without mercy, that which would have happened little by little if left to itself. This was its work. It is surprising that this view of the subject, which now seems so easy to discern, should have been so obscured and confused even to the clearest perceptions. ‘Instead of redressing their grievances,’ says Burke of the representatives of the French nation, ‘and improving the fabric of their state, to which they were called by their monarch and sent by their country, they were made to take a very different course. They first destroyed all the balances and counterpoises which serve to fix the State and to give it a steady direction, and which furnish sure correctives to any violent spirit which may prevail in any of the orders. These balances existed in the oldest constitution and in the constitution of all the countries in Europe. These they rashly destroyed, and then they melted down the whole into one incongruous, ill-connected mass.’
注释摘要
托克维尔在这一段里做了一个看似矛盾、实则指向全书核心论证的判断：法国大革命远没有人们想象的那么具有创新性，却又把该摧毁的东西摧毁得极为彻底。他所说的“创新其实少得多”，指的是大革命所建立的那个以身份平等为基调的统一社会政治秩序，并不是凭空创造出来的新东西，而是漫长演变进程的终点。真正被大革命连根拔除的，只是那些源出于贵族制和封建制的制度，以及一切哪怕只是些…