ated
from his flock, and pastors of the people end in being considered its
parasites.

Let us first follow them into the provinces. We here find only the minor
class of nobles and a portion of those of medium rank; the rest are
in Paris.[1307] There is the same line of separation in the church:
abbes-commendatory, bishops and archbishops very seldom live at home.
The grand-vicars and canons live in the large towns; only priors and
curates dwell in the rural districts. Ordinarily the entire ecclesiastic
or lay staff is absent; residents are furnished only by the secondary or
inferior grades. What are their relations with the peasant? One point
is certain, and that is that they are not usually hard, nor even
indifferent, to him. Separated by rank they are not so by distance;
neighborhood is of itself a bond among men. I have read in vain, but
I have not found them the rural tyrants, which the declaimers of the
Revolution portray them. Haughty with the bourgeois they are generally
kind to the villager. "Let any one travel through the provinces," says a
contemporary advocate, "over the estates occupied by the seigniors.
Out of one hundred one may be found tyrannizing his dependents; all
the others, patiently share the misery of those subject to their
jurisdiction. . . They give their debtors time, remit sums due, and
afford them every facility for settlement. They mollify and temper the
sometimes over-rigorous proceedings of the fermiers, stewards and other
men of business."[1308] An Englishwoman, who observes them in Provence
just after the Revolution, says that, detested at Aix, they are much
beloved on their estates. "Whilst they pass the first citizens with
their heads erect and an air of disdain, they salute peasants with
extreme courtesy and affability." One of them distributes among the
women, children and the aged on his domain wool and flax to spin during
the bad season, and, at the end of the year, he offers a prize of one
hundred livres for the two best pieces of cloth. In numerous instances
the peasant-purchasers of their land voluntarily restore it for the
purchase money. Around Paris, near Romainville, after the terrible storm
of 1788 there is prodigal alms-giving; "a very wealthy man immediately
distributes forty thousand francs among the surrounding unfortunates."
During the winter, in Alsace and in Paris, everybody is giving; "in
front of each hotel belonging to a well-known family a big log is
burning to