ionship as he now had was
among the middle and lower classes, whose estates were more
proportionate to his own, and whose sentiments were virtually
identical with those which he professed.

The list of books which he read is significant: Coxe's "Travels in
Switzerland," Duclos's "Memoirs of the Reigns of Louis XIV and Louis
XV," Machiavelli's "History of Florence," Voltaire's "Essay on
Manners," Duvernet's "History of the Sorbonne," Le Noble's "Spirit of
Gerson," and Dulaure's "History of the Nobility." There exist among
his papers outlines more or less complete of all these books. They
prove that he understood what he read, but unlike other similar
jottings by him they give little evidence of critical power. Aside
from such historical studies as would explain the events preliminary
to that revolutionary age upon which he saw that France was entering,
he was carefully examining the attitude of the Gallican Church toward
the claims of the papacy, and considering the role of the aristocracy
in society. It is clear that he had no intention of being merely a
curious onlooker at the successive phases of the political and social
transmutation already beginning; he was bent on examining causes,
comprehending reasons, and sharing in the movement itself.

By the summer of 1791 the first stage in the transformation of France
had almost passed. The reign of moderation in reform was nearly over.
The National Assembly had apprehended the magnitude but not the nature
of its task, and was unable to grasp the consequences of the new
constitution it had outlined. The nation was sufficiently familiar
with the idea of the crown as an executive, but hitherto the executive
had been at the same time legislator; neither King nor people quite
knew how the King was to obey the nation when the former, trained in
the school of the strictest absolutism, was deprived of all volition,
and the latter gave its orders through a single chamber, responsive to
the levity of the masses, and controlled neither by an absolute veto
power, nor by any feeling of responsibility to a calm public opinion.
This was the urgent problem which had to be solved under conditions
the most unfavorable that could be conceived.

During the autumn of 1789 famine was actually stalking abroad. The
Parisian populace grew gaunt and dismal, but the King and aristocracy
at Versailles had food in plenty, and the contrast was heightened by a
lavish display in the palace. The royal