As that great American Mark Twain said about the French Revolution....
There were two ?Reigns of Terror?, if we could but remember and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passions, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon a thousand persons, the other upon a hundred million; but our shudders are all for the ?horrors of the? momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty and heartbreak? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief terror that we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror ? that unspeakable bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.
As we hear the powerful condemn the violence of the people remember their silence and support for the corrupt regime.
There were two ?Reigns of Terror?, if we could but remember and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passions, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon a thousand persons, the other upon a hundred million; but our shudders are all for the ?horrors of the? momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty and heartbreak? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief terror that we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror ? that unspeakable bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.
As we hear the powerful condemn the violence of the people remember their silence and support for the corrupt regime.
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