《旧制度与大革命·序言·致读者》第7节
I hope I have written this book without prejudice, but I do not profess to have written it without passion. No Frenchman should speak of his country and think of this time unmoved. I acknowledge that in studying the old society of France in each of its parts I have never entirely lost sight of the society of more recent times. I have sought not only to discover the disease of which the patient died, but also the means by which life might have been preserved. I have imitated that medical analysis which seeks in each expiring organ to catch the laws of life. My object has been to draw a picture strictly accurate, and at the same time instructive. Whenever I have met amongst our progenitors with any of those masculine virtues which we most want and which we least possess--such as a true spirit of independence, a taste for great things, faith in ourselves and in a cause--I have placed them in relief: so, too, when I have found in the laws, the opinions, and the manners of that time traces of some of those vices which after having consumed the former society of France still infest us, I have carefully brought them to the light, in order that, seeing the evil they have done us, it might better be understood what evils they may still engender. To accomplish this object I confess I have not feared to wound either persons, or classes, or opinions, or recollections of the past, however worthy of respect they may be. I have done so often with regret, but always without remorse. May those whom I have thus perhaps offended forgive me in consideration of the honest and disinterested object which I pursue. Many will perhaps accuse me of showing in this book a very unseasonable love of freedom--a thing for which it is said that no one any longer cares in France. I shall only beg those who may address to me this reproach to consider that this is no recent inclination of my mind. More than twenty years ago, speaking of another community, I wrote almost textually the following observations.
注释摘要
托克维尔在此处做的，不是一般意义上的谦辞或免责声明，而是在澄清自己整部书的认识论立场：一部关于大革命的“研究”到底可以容纳什么样的判断力。他首先区分了“偏见”和“激情”：偏见是会扭曲判断的先入之见，而激情在他是对法兰西命运不可遏制的关切。这不是修辞伎俩，而是一种思想上的交代——他承认自己不是局外人，也无法成为局外人。正因为他是法国人，才无法“无动于衷”地谈…