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not possess is extremely dangerous. Never would Napoleon, nor any of the sovereigns who preceded
him, have consented to make the clergy independent of the State, as they have become to-day.
The difficulties of Bonaparte the First Consul were far greater than those he had to surmount after his
coronation. Only a profound knowledge of men enabled him to triumph over them. The future master
was far from being the master as yet. Many departments were still in insurrection. Brigandage persisted,
and the Midi was ravaged by the struggles of partisans. Bonaparte, as Consul, had to conciliate and
handle Talleyrand, Fouché, and a number of generals who thought themselves his equal. Even his
brothers conspired against his power. Napoleon, as Emperor, had no hostile party to face, but as Consul
he had to combat all the parties and to hold the balance equal among them. This must indeed have been a
difficult task, since during the last century very few Governments have succeeded in accomplishing it.
The success of such an undertaking demanded an extremely subtle mixture of finesse, firmness, and
diplomacy. Not feeling himself powerful enough as yet, Bonaparte the Consul made a rule, according to
his own expression, of governing men as the greater number wish to be governed. As Emperor he often
managed to govern them according to his own ideal.
We have travelled a long way since the time when historians, in their singular blindness, and great poets,
who possessed more talent than psychology, would hold forth in indignant accents against thecoup d'État
of Brumaire. What profound illusions underlay the assertion that France lay fair in Messidor's great sun !
And other illusions no less profound underlay such verdicts as that of Victor Hugo concerning this period.
We have seen that the Crime of Brumaire had as an enthusiastic accomplice, not only the Government
itself but the whole of France, which it delivered from anarchy.
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One may wonder how intelligent men could so misjudge a period of history which is nevertheless so
clear. It was doubtless because they saw events through their own convictions, and we know what
transformations the truth may suffer for the man who is imprisoned in the valleys of belief. The most
luminous facts are obscured, and the history of events is the history of his dreams.
The psychologist who desires to understand the period which we have so briefly sketched can only do
so if, being attached to no party, he stands clear of the passions which are the soul of parties. He will
never dream of recriminating a past which was dictated by such imperious necessities. Certainly
Napoleon has cost France dear: his epic was terminated by two invasions, and there was yet to be a
third, whose consequences are felt even to-day, when the prestige which he exerted even from the tomb
set upon the throne the inheritor of his name.
All these events are narrowly connected in their origin. They represent the price of that capital
phenomenon in the evolution of a people, a change of ideal. Man can never make the attempt to break
suddenly with his ancestors without profoundly affecting the course of his own history.
CHAPTER III
POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE CONFLICT
BETWEEN TRADITIONS AND REVOLUTIONARY
PRINCIPLES DURING THE LAST CENTURY
1.The Psychological Causes of
the continued Revolutionary
Movements to which France
has been subject .
IN examining, in a subsequent chapter, the evolution of revolutionary ideas during the last century, we
shall see that during more than fifty years they very slowly spread through the various strata of society.
During the whole of this period the great majority of the people and thebourgeoisie rejected them, and
their diffusion was effected only by a very limited number of apostles. But their influence, thanks
principally to the faults of Governments, was sufficient to provoke several revolutions. We shall examine
these briefly when we have examined the psychological influences which gave them birth.
The history of our political upheavals during the last century is enough to prove, even if we did not yet
realise the fact, that men are governed by their mentalities far more than by the institutions which their
rulers endeavour to force upon them.
The successive revolutions which France has suffered have been the consequences of struggles between
two portions of the nation whose mentalities are different. One is religious and monarchical and is
dominated by long ancestral influences; the other is subjected to the same influences, but gives them a
revolutionary form.
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From the commencement of the Revolution the struggle between contrary mentalities was plainly
manifested. We have seen that in spite of the most frightful repression insurrections and conspiracies
lasted until the end of the Directory. They proved that the traditions of the past had left profound roots in
the popular soul. At a certain moment sixty departments were in revolt against the new Government, and
were only repressed by repeated massacres on a vast scale.
To establish some sort of compromise between theancien régime and the new ideals was the most
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