《旧制度与大革命·卷二·第九章·如此相似的人何以更割裂》第4节
It is impossible to study the records of the States-General of the fourteenth century, and above all of the Provincial Estates of the same period, without being astonished at the importance of the place which the Tiers-Etat filled in those assemblies, and at the power it wielded in them. As a man the burgess of the fourteenth century was, doubtless, very inferior to the burgess of the eighteenth; but the middle class, as a body, filled a far higher and more secure place in political society. Its right to a share in the government was uncontested; the part which it played in political assemblies was always considerable and often preponderating. The other classes of the community were forced to a constant reckoning with the people. But what strikes us most is, that the nobility and the Tiers-Etat found it at that time so much easier to transact business together, or to offer a common resistance, than they have ever found it since. This is observable not only in the States-General of the fourteenth century, many of which had an irregular and revolutionary character impressed upon them by the disasters of the time, but in the Provincial Estates of the same period, where nothing seems to have interrupted the regular and habitual course of affairs. Thus, in Auvergne, we find that the three Orders took the most important measures in common, and that the execution of them was superintended by commissioners chosen equally from all three. The same thing occurred at the same time in Champagne. Every one knows the famous act by which, at the beginning of the same century, the nobles and burgesses of a large number of towns combined together to defend the franchises of the nation and the privileges of their provinces against the encroachments of the Crown. During that period of French history we find many such episodes, which appear as if borrowed from the history of England. In the following centuries events of this character altogether disappeared. The fact is, that as by degrees the government of the lordships became disorganised, and the States-General grew rarer or ceased altogether--that as the general liberties of the country were finally destroyed, involving the local liberties in their ruin--the burgess and the noble ceased to come into contact in public life. They no longer felt the necessity of standing by one another, or of a mutual compact; every day rendered them more independent of each other, but at the same time estranged them more and more. In the eighteenth century this revolution was fully accomplished; the two conditions of men never met but by accident in private life. Thenceforth the two classes were not merely rivals but enemies.
注释摘要
托克维尔在这一段论述中引入了本章最具悖论性的核心论证线索：阶级之间越是变得相似，就越可能在情感和公共生活上彼此割裂。他通过一个明显的历史对比来展开，这个对比指向的不是抽象的人性或权利话语，而是政治参与的实际机制。他邀请读者回到十四世纪，去看那时的第三等级在三级会议与省三级会议中所占据的位置。令他惊异的并不是那时的城镇市民在个人教养、财富或见识上高于十八世纪…