France -- History -- Louis XVI, 1774-1793; France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799
The question of questions accordingly were, Who is it that
especially for rebellers and abolishers, can make a Constitution?
He that can image forth the general Belief when there is one;
that can impart one when, as here, there is none. A most rare
man; ever as of old a god-missioned man! Here, however, in defect
of such transcendent supreme man, Time with its infinite
succession of merely superior men, each yielding his little
contribution, does much. Force likewise (for, as Antiquarian
Philosophers teach, the royal Sceptre was from the first
something of a Hammer, to _crack_ such heads as could not be
convinced) will all along find somewhat to do. And thus in
perpetual abolition and reparation, rending and mending, with
struggle and strife, with present evil and the hope and effort
towards future good, must the Constitution, as all human things
do, build itself forward; or unbuild itself, and sink, as it can
and may. O Sieyes, and ye other Committeemen, and Twelve Hundred
miscellaneous individuals from all parts of France! What is the
Belief of France, and yours, if ye knew it? Properly that there
shall be no Belief; that all formulas be swallowed. The
Constitution which will suit that? Alas, too clearly, a
No-Constitution, an Anarchy;—which also, in due season, shall be
vouchsafed you.
But, after all, what can an unfortunate National Assembly do?
Consider only this, that there are Twelve Hundred miscellaneous
individuals; not a unit of whom but has his own
thinking-apparatus, his own speaking-apparatus! In every unit of
them is some belief and wish, different for each, both that
France should be regenerated, and also that he individually
should do it. Twelve Hundred separate Forces, yoked
miscellaneously to any object, miscellaneously to all sides of
it; and bid pull for life!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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