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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



modern Attila who was guilty of this bloodshed is shown by decorat- 

 ing rooms with portraits and busts of him. See the beliefs which 

 these respective feelings imply : 



Over ten thousand deaths we 

 may fitly shudder and lament. 



As the ten thousand were slain 

 because of the tyrannies, and cruel- 

 ties, and treacheries, committed by 

 them or by their class, their deaths 

 are especially pitiable. 



The suffe rings of the ten thou- 

 sand and of their relatives, who 

 expiated their own misdeeds and 

 the misdeeds of their class, may 

 fitly form subjects for heart-rend- 

 ing stories and pathetic pictures. 



That despair and the indigna- 

 tion of a betrayed people brought 

 about this slaughter of ten thou- 

 sand, makes the atrocity without 

 palliation. 



Two million deaths may be 

 contemplated without much shud- 

 dering and lamentation. 



As the two millions, innocent 

 of offence, were taken against 

 their wills from classes already 

 oppressed and impoverished, the 

 slaughter of them need not ex- 

 cite our pity. 



There is nothing heart-rending 

 in the sufferings of the two mill- 

 ions who died for no crimes of 

 their own or their class ; nor need 

 we see pathos in the fates of the 

 poor families throughout France 

 and all neighboring countries from 

 which the two million victims were 

 taken. 



That one man's lust of power 

 was gratified through the deaths 

 of the two millions, greatly pal- 

 liates the sacrifice of them. 



These are the antithetical propositions tacitly implied in the opin- 

 ions that have been current in England about the French Revolution 

 and the Napoleonic wars. Only by acceptance of such propositions 

 can these opinions be defended. Such have been the emotions of men 

 that, until quite recently, it has been the habit to speak with detesta- 

 tion of the one set of events, and to speak of the other set of events 

 in words betraying admiration. Nay, even now these feelings are but 

 partially qualified. While the names of the leading actors in the Reign 

 of Terror are names of execration, we speak of Napoleon as " the 

 Great," and Englishmen worship him by visiting his tomb and taking 

 off their hats ! 



How, then, with such perverting emotions, is it possible to take 

 rational views of sociological facts ? Forming, as men do, such 

 astoundingly false concej^tions of the relative amounts of evils and 

 the relative characters of motives, how can they judge truly among 

 institutions and actions, past or present ? Clearly, minds thus swayed 

 by disproportionate hates and admirations cannot frame those balanced 



