《旧制度与大革命·卷二·第九章·如此相似的人何以更割裂》第6节
Louis XIV., pressed by the financial difficulties which overwhelmed him towards the end of his reign, had established two common taxes--the capitation tax and the twentieths; but, as if the exemption from taxation had been in itself a privilege so venerable that it was necessary to respect it in the very act by which it was infringed, care was taken to render the mode of collection different even when the tax was common. For one class it remained harsh and degrading, for the other indulgent and honourable. Although inequality under taxation prevailed throughout the whole continent of Europe, there were very few countries in which it had become so palpable or was so constantly felt as in France. Throughout a great part of Germany most of the taxes were indirect; and even with respect to the direct taxes, the privilege of the nobility frequently consisted only in bearing a smaller share of the common burden. There were, moreover, certain taxes which fell only upon the nobles, and which were intended to replace the gratuitous military service which was no longer exacted. Now of all means of distinguishing one man from another and of marking the difference of classes, inequality of taxation is the most pernicious and the most calculated to add isolation to inequality, and in some sort to render both irremediable. Let us look at its effects. When the noble and the middle classes are not liable to the same tax, the assessment and collection of each year’s revenue draws afresh with sharpness and precision the line of demarcation between them. Every year each member of the privileged order feels an immediate and pressing interest in not suffering himself to be confounded with the mass, and makes a fresh effort to place himself apart from it. As there is scarcely any matter of public business that does not either arise out of or result in a tax, it follows that as soon as the two classes are not equally liable to it, they can no longer have any reason for common deliberation, or any cause of common wants and desires; no effort is needed to keep them asunder; the occasion and the desire for common action have been removed.
注释摘要
托克维尔在这一段里抓住了一个看似矛盾的事实：路易十四在财政最窘迫时设立了两种新税——人头税和廿分一税，理论上它们打破了贵族不纳税的古老传统，使所有等级都承担公共负担。但讽刺的是，这项本应导向平等的措施，在执行时却被刻意塑造成维护不平等的手段。征税方式本身成了区分身份最醒目的标尺：第三等级遭遇的是严厉甚至带有羞辱色彩的征收，而贵族享受的则是温和、体面的对待。…