《旧制度与大革命·卷二·第十二章·何以十八世纪法国农民处境反不如十三世纪》第4节
The peasant was thus almost entirely separated from the upper classes; he was removed from those of his fellow-creatures who might have assisted and directed him. In proportion as they attained to enlightenment or competency, they turned their backs on him; he stood, as it were, tabooed and set apart in the midst of the nation. This state of things did not exist in an equal degree amongst any of the other civilized nations of Europe, and even in France it was comparatively recent. The peasantry of the fourteenth century were at once more oppressed and more relieved. The aristocracy sometimes tyrannised over them, but never forsook them. In the eighteenth century, a French village was a community of persons, all of whom were poor, ignorant, and coarse; its magistrates were as rude and as contemned as the people; its syndic could not read; its collector could not record in his own handwriting the accounts on which the income of his neighbours and his own depended. Not only had the former lord of the manor lost the right of governing this community, but he had brought himself to consider it a sort of degradation to take any part in the government of it. To assess the taille, to call out the militia, to regulate the forced labour, were servile offices, devolving on the syndic. The central power of the State alone took any care of the matter, and as that power was very remote, and had as yet nothing to fear from the inhabitants of the villages, the only care it took of them was to extract revenue. Let me show you what a forsaken class of society becomes which no one desires to oppress, but which no one attempts to enlighten or to serve. The heaviest burdens which the feudal system had imposed on the rural population had without doubt been withdrawn and mitigated; but it is not sufficiently known that for these burdens others had been substituted, perhaps more onerous. The peasant had not to endure all the evils endured by his forefathers, but he supported many hardships which his forefathers had never known.
注释摘要
托克维尔在这一段里把“被抛弃”推到了分析的中心，和他之前反复讨论的阶级隔绝主题形成了一个更尖锐的表达。他所描绘的农民不再是受封建领主暴力压迫的农奴，而是被悬置在一个无人愿意理会、无人愿意引导的空间里。上等阶级并非刻意加害，而是随着财富、教养与机遇的增长，一致转过身去。农民变成了 nation 内部一道沉默的、几乎禁忌的存在——托克维尔用“tabooed a…