《旧制度与大革命·卷二·第十八章·政府借此数种做法完成对民众的革命教育》第5节
It is true that under this monarchy of the eighteenth century, though the forms of procedure were terrific, the punishment was almost always light. The object was to inspire fear rather than to inflict pain; or rather, perhaps, those in power were violent and arbitrary from habit or from indifference, and mild by temperament. But this only increased the taste for this summary kind of justice. The lighter the penalty the more readily was the manner forgotten in which it had been pronounced. The mildness of the sentence served to veil the horror of the mode of procedure. I may venture to affirm, from the facts I have in my possession, that a great number of the proceedings adopted by the Revolutionary Government had precedents and examples in the measures taken with regard to the common people during the last two centuries of the monarchy. The monarchy gave to the Revolution many of its forms; the latter only added to them the atrocity of its own spirit.
注释摘要
托克维尔在这里提笔写下了一个看似悖谬的判断，但其分量极重，直指全书的核心论证。他指出，在十八世纪的法国君主制下，针对平民的司法程序往往是骇人的——秘密包围村庄、夜半破门、无令状逮捕、长期羁押而不讯问——可最终的量刑却常常轻得出奇。这种“程序恐怖而刑罚轻薄”的格局，并非出于什么精密的统治算计。托克维尔审慎地补了一句：这也许更多是因为掌权者出于习惯或漠然而行事…