INTRODUCTION

For many years past I hâve been especially interested in the history of the French Révolution, and hâve presented my view of it in lectures to students, first at the University of Michigan, afterward at Cornell University. It has alv/ays seemed to me one of the most instructive periods in ail history. It takes hold both of the imagination and of the reason ; some of the noblest and some of the vilest deeds ever done by man are embraced in it ; ambition and perversity did in it their best and their v/orst ; hardly any mistake which can be made in the political conduct of affairs is not fuUy exemplified in it.

Great numbers of brilliant minds hâve been brought to bear upon this period in historiés and treatises of every sort, and the mass of material required for a thorough study of it is enormous. But the main difficulty of the American student is

Xll INTRODUCTION.

that, instead of studying the Révolution, he has generally only the means to study about the Révolution. In order to meet this difficulty among my own students I hâve for many years been making a collection of original materials presenting the whole history of the French Révolution. This has now become the largest collection of its kind within the bounds of the United States, — in fact, one of the largest in existence, embracing not only every historical treatise and collatéral work of any importance, but thousands of documents of the period, including reports, pamphlets, speeches, files of newspapers of ail parties, fugitive writings of every sort, serions or jocose, in prose or in poetry. In this every leading man of the Révolution is revealed as he was.

At my suggestion. Prof essor Crâne and Instructor Brun of Cornell University hâve made sélections from this mass of material in order that readers may be able to break through the ordinary crust of description into the real life of the Révolution. Thèse two gentlemen hâve executed their work with great fidelity and skill, and I hâve no hésitation in commending it to any student as the best

INTRODUCTION. XUl

possible supplément to historical reading on the period in question. The reading of a brief history like that of Mignet or Morris, or even Carlyle's prose poem, will be made vastly more useful if, in connection with it or immediately afterward, the student shall run through this book. It seems to me that it may be made to serve an excellent purpose in our universities and collèges in presenting the best of exercises for reading in French, while giving a real view of this most important and interesting phase in the moral, social, and political development of France and, indeed, of the whole modem world.

Andrew D. Write.

CORNELL UnIVERSITY, AtlgMSt^ 1884,