along with it; for, like the axioms of common geometry, it is formed
out of the combination of a few simple ideas, and its evidence imposes
itself at once on all minds capable of embracing in one conception the
two terms of which it is the aggregate expression. Man in general, the
rights of Man, the social contract, liberty, equality, reason, nature,
the people, tyrants, are examples of these basic concepts: whether
precise or not, they fill the brain of the new sectarian. Often these
terms are merely vague and grandiose words, but that makes no
difference; as soon as they meet in his brain an axiom springs out of
them that can be instantly and absolutely applied on every occasion
and to excess. Mankind as it is does not concern him. He does not
observe them; he does not require to observe them; with closed eyes he
imposes a pattern of his own on the human substance manipulated by
him; the idea never enters his head of forming any previous conception
of this complex, multiform, swaying material - contemporary peasants,
artisans, townspeople, curés and nobles, behind their plows, in their
homes, in their shops, in their parsonages, in their mansions, with
their inveterate beliefs, persistent inclinations, and powerful wills.
Nothing of this enters into or lodges in his mind; all its avenues are
stopped by the abstract principle which flourishes there and fills it
completely. Should actual experience through the eye or ear plant some
unwelcome truth forcibly in his mind, it cannot subsist there; however
noisy and relentless it may be, the abstract principle drives it
out;[16] if need be it will distort and strangle it, considering it a
slanderer since it refutes a principle which is true and undeniable in
itself. Obviously, a mind of this kind is not sound; of the two
faculties which should pull together harmoniously, one is degenerated
and the other overgrown; facts cannot turn the scale against the
theory. Charged on one side and empty on the other, the Jacobin mind
turns violently over on that side to which it leans, and such is its