Page:Georgii Valentinovich Plekhanov - The Bourgeois Revolution- Its Attainments and Its Limitations - tr. Henry Kuhn (1926).pdf/12

 the floor to the bourgeois philosophers about the events of the 18th century.

Toward the end of that century there took place in France a "great rebellion" and a "glorious revolution" of 1789 and "the great rebellion" which played its part largely in 1793. After what has already been said, the reader will now be able to predict with certainty what the bourgeois philosopher, Paul Janet, thinks of those revolutionary movements.

In the final chapter of his book, Janet says: "In order to arrive at an objective evaluation of the French revolution, one must in regard to it differentiate three moments: the purpose, the means and the results obtained. The purpose of the revolution—to gain civic equality and political freedom—was the most sublime, the most legitimate a people has ever striven to attain." But the means were bad: “"only too frequently they were forcible, terrible."

So far as results are concerned, civic equality, according to Janet, has been fully attained and leaves nothing to be wished for; "political