Old Paris Its Social Historica

Author : Alvan Francis Sanborn
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781331386490
Total Pages : 476 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (864 download)

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Download or read book Paris and the Social Revolution written by Alvan Francis Sanborn and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Paris and the Social Revolution: A Study of the Revolutionary Elements in the Various Classes of Parisian Society It was the author's original intention to let this book make shift without the conventional preface, as befitted the unconventionality of its theme. But he has learned since it was begun - what it was very stupid of him not to have known at the outset - that in the matter of heresies, ethical, social, and political as well as theological, interest is bound to pass for approval, explanation for advocacy, and sympathy, be it ever so slight, for profound belief: as if a man who showed a curiosity about and appreciation of dogs should, by that very fact, become a dog; or as if (since there may seem to be an unfortunate implication of contempt in this illustration a German who attempted to expound honestly English temperament, opinions, and traditions should, by that very fact, become an Englishman. Once for all, then, the author is not a revolutionist, though there are moments when he fancies he would like to be one, it appears such an eminently satisfying state. It takes faith to be a revolutionist; and he is, alas! mentally incapable of faith. He is not an anarchist, not a socialist, not a radical, not a "red republican," nor a "mangeur de pretres." His affiliations have not been even Dreyfusard in France, nor even Bryanite in America. He is a conservative of the conservatives, only prevented from being a reactionary by the fact that reaction is but another form of revolution, and the most hopeless and faith-exacting of them all. So far from being a revolutionist, he is an evolutionist only under protest, - vi et armis, as it were. He favours things as they are, things as they were quite as often, while things as they might be contain for him no allure. He cherishes enormously this imperfect old world as it is, still more as it was; has not the slightest desire to reconstruct it after his own formula, and would not willingly exchange it for any hypothetical world which, up to the present hour, restless human ingenuity has devised. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."