SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1789-1799)
It may now be possible for us to have some idea as to the real meaning
of these ten years of Assemblies, constitutions, insurrections, and
wars, which have marked the period of the French Revolution. A present-
day visitor in Paris will be struck by the bold letters which stand out
on the public buildings and churches: _Liberte, Egalite,
Fraternite_--Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. These were the words
which the revolutionaries spelled out on their homes, which they
thought embodied the true meaning of the Revolution.
As to the meaning of these words, there were certainly quite
contradictory views. To the royalists and rigid Catholics--to the
privileged nobility and clergy--to many a surprised peasant--to all the
reactionaries, they meant everything that was hateful, blasphemous,
sordid, inhuman, and unpatriotic. To the enlightened altruistic
bourgeois--to the poverty-stricken workingman of the city--to many a
dreamer and philanthropist--to all the extreme radicals, they were but
a shadowy will-of-the-wisp that glimmered briefly and perhaps indicated
faintly the gorgeousness of the great day that much later might break
upon them.
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