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Untitled Article
political , but perhaps still more in what may be called the private biographic phasis ; the manner in which individuals demeaned themselves , and social life went on , in so extraordinary an element as that ; the most extraordinary , one might say , for the "thin rind of habit' * was utterly rent off , and man ' stood therewith all the powers of civilization , and none of its rules to aid him in guiding these . '
Such things we would willingly learn from a history of the Revolution ; but who among its historians teaches the like ? or has ought of that kind to teach ? or has ever had the thought strike him that such things are to be taught or learnt ? Not Mr . Alison ' s predecessors , of whom , nevertheless , there must be some twenty who have written better books than his ; far less Mr . Alison himself . How should he ? When in the course of ages a man
arises who can conceive a character , though it be but of one being , and can make his readers conceive it too , we call him a dramatist , and write down his name in the short list of the world ' s great minds ; are we then entitled to expect from every respectable , quiet , well-meaning Tory gentleman , that he shall be capable of forming within himself , and impressing upon us , a living image of
the character and manner of existence , not of one human being , but of a nation or a century of mankind ? To throw our own mind into the mind and into the circumstances of another , is one ^ of the most trying of all exercises of the intellect and imagination , and the very conception how great a thing it is , seems to imply the capacity of at least partially performing it .
Not to judge Mr . Alison by so high a standard , but by the far lower one of what has actually been achieved by previous writers on the subject , let us endeavour to estimate the worth of his book , and his qualifications as a historian . And first , of his merits . He is evidently what is termed a kindhearted , or , at the very least , a good-natured man . Though a Tory , and , therefore , one in whom some prejudices against the actors in the Revolution might be excused , he is most unaffectedly
candid and charitable in his judgment of them . Though he condemns them as politicians , he is more indulgent to them as men than even we are , who look with much less disapprobation upon many of their acts . He has not , indeed , that highest impartiality which proceeds from philosophic insight , but abundance of that lower kind which flows from milkiness of disposition . He can appreciate talent ; he does not join in the ill-informed anJ rash assertion of the Edinburgh Review , reechoed by the Quarterly , that the first authors of the French Revolution were mediocre
men ; on the contrary , speaking in his preface of the Constitueapr Assembly , he talks of its ' memorable discussions , ' and of himself as * most forcibly impressed with the prodigious , though often perverted and mistaken ability , which distinguished them . ' Mr . Alison has a further merit , and in a man of his quality of mind
Untitled Article
The French Revolution . 509
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1833, page 509, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2618/page/69/
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