Page:Georgii Valentinovich Plekhanov - The Bourgeois Revolution- Its Attainments and Its Limitations - tr. Henry Kuhn (1926).pdf/10

 ferentiation in the evaluation of the two revolutions has already been revealed by Augustin Thierry in his theses about the English revolutions.

In the first revolution, the people played an important role, while in the second the people participated hardly at all. When, however, a people mounts the stage of history and begins to decide the destinies of its country according to its power and best understanding, then the higher classes (in this case the bourgeoisie) get out of humor. Because the people is always "raw" and, if the revolutionary devil begins to pervade it, it also becomes "coarse"; the higher classes have a way of always insisting upon politeness and gentle manners—at least they demand these of the people. This is the reason why the higher classes are always inclined to put upon revolutionary movements, if: prominently participated in by the people, the stamp of "rebellions."

The history of France is particularly rich in "great rebellions" as well as in "glorious revolutions." Only in France, so far as the historic sequence of events is concerned, mat-