heir existence, the interior of a parsonage, of
a convent, of a town-council, the wages of a workman, the produce of a
farm, the taxes levied on a peasant, the duties of a tax-collector, the
expenditure of a noble or prelate, the budget, retinue and ceremonial of
a court. Thanks to such resources, we are able to give precise figures,
to know hour by hour the occupations of a day and, better still, read
off the bill of fare of a grand dinner, and recompose all parts of
a full-dress costume. We have even, on the one hand, samples of the
materials of the dresses worn by Marie Antoinette, pinned on paper and
classified by dates. And on the other hand, we can tell what clothes
were worn by the peasant, describe the bread he ate, specify the
flour it was made of, and state the cost of a pound of it in sous and
deniers.[0012] With such resources one becomes almost contemporary with
the men whose history one writes and, more than once, in the Archives,
I have, while tracing their old handwriting on the time-stained paper
before me, been tempted to speak aloud with them.

H. A. Taine, August 1875.

NOTES:

[Footnote 0011: Taine's friend who was the director of the French
National Archives. (SR.)]

[Footnote 0012: One sou equals 1/20th of a franc or 5 centimes. 12
diniers equaled one sou. (SR.)]

BOOK FIRST. THE STRUCTURE OF THE ANCIENT SOCIETY.

CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN OF PRIVILEGES.

In 1789 three classes of persons, the Clergy, the Nobles and the
King, occupied the most prominent position in the State with all the
advantages pertaining thereto namely, authority, property, honors,
or, at the very least, privileges, immunities, favors, pensions,
preferences, and the like. If they occupied this position for so long a
time, it is because for so long a time they had deserved it. They had,
in short, through an immense and secular effort, constructed by degrees
the three principal foundations of modern society.

I. Services and Recompenses of the Clergy.

Of these three layered foundations the most ancient and deepest was the
work of the clergy. For twelve hundred years and more they had labored
upon it, both as architects and workmen, at first alone and then
almost alone.--In the beginning, during the first four centuries, they
constituted religion and the church. Let us ponder over these two words;
in order to weigh them well. On the one hand, in a society founded on
conquest, hard and cold like a mac