Page:Georgii Valentinovich Plekhanov - The Bourgeois Revolution- Its Attainments and Its Limitations - tr. Henry Kuhn (1926).pdf/13

 freedom," however, "obtains in France since the revolution only sporadically, and to this day is more or less endangered." It will be secure only when the French people shall dispense with all forcible, unlawful methods and once for all have learned to look upon their revolution as finished, and, finally, when the revolution itself has passed into the historic past as irrevocably as has already been the case with the revolutions in England and in the United States. "The attainments of the revolution should be held fast, but there must be renunciation of the revolutionary spirit and of forcible and unlawful means."

Very good. But let us not forget that revolutionary means were employed since 1789, that is, not only at the time of "the great rebellion," but also during "the glorious revolution." Is "the glorious revolution" to be condemned by Paul Janet because of its forcible means? But no—on the contrary. In his description, the acts of force practiced during "the glorious revolution" appear fully justified, highly useful and thoroughly efficacious.