《旧制度与大革命·卷二·第十三章·十八世纪中叶文人何以成为首要政客》第6节
On examining with attention the Instructions drawn up by the three Orders before their convocation in 1789--by all the three, the nobility and clergy, as well as the Tiers-État--noting seriatim all the demands made for the changes of laws or customs, it will be seen with a sort of terror, on terminating this immense labour, and casting up the sum total of all these particular requirements, that what was required is no less than the simultaneous and systematic abolition of every law and every usage current throughout the country; and that what was impending must be one of the most extensive and dangerous revolutions that ever appeared in the world. Yet the very men who were so shortly to become its victims knew nothing of it. They fancied that the total and sudden transformation of so ancient and complicated a state of society was to be effected, without any concussion, by the aid and efficacy of reason alone; and they fatally forgot that maxim which their forefathers, four hundred years before, had expressed in the simple and energetic language of their time: ‘Par requierre de trop grande franchise et libertés chet-on en trop grande servaige.’ (By requiring too great liberty and franchise, men fall into too great servitude.) It was not surprising that the nobility and middle classes, so long excluded from all public action, should have displayed this strange inexperience; but what astonishes far more is, that the very men who had the conduct of public affairs, the ministers, the magistrates, and the Intendants, should not have evinced more foresight. Many of them, nevertheless, were very clever men in their profession, and were thoroughly possessed of all the details of the public administration of their time; but in that great science of government, which teaches the comprehension of the general movement of society, the appreciation of what is passing in the minds of the masses, and the foreknowledge of the probable results--they were just as much novices as the people itself. In truth, it is only the exercise of free institutions that can teach the statesman this principal portion of his art.
注释摘要
托克维尔在此处做了一个极具震撼力的历史思想实验：他把 1789 年三级会议召开之前全国各地各等级所提交的陈情书逐一检视，然后将所有改革要求汇总成一个整体来看。结果令人惊恐——三个等级，包括贵族和教士，与第三等级一样，所要求的竟是一套毫无保留地、系统性地废除现行全部法律与习俗的纲领。他没有说各等级有意要革自己的命，而是说这些密密麻麻的具体诉求加在一起，客观上…