be made in France, for the reason that the line of
least resistance was to be found not through the most downtrodden, but
through the freest and the best instructed nation on the Continent.
Both the clergy and the nobility of France had become accustomed to
the absorption in the crown of their ancient feudal power. They were
content with the great offices in the church, in the army, and in the
civil administration, with exemption from the payment of taxes; they
were happy in the delights of literature and the fine arts, in the
joys of a polite, self-indulgent, and spendthrift society, so
artificial and conventional that for most of its members a sufficient
occupation was found in the study and exposition of its trivial but
complex customs. The conduct and maintenance of a salon, the stage,
gallantry; clothes, table manners, the use of the fan: these are
specimens of what were considered not the incidents but the essentials
of life.

The serious-minded among the upper classes were as enlightened as any
of their rank elsewhere. They were familiar with prevalent
philosophies, and full of compassion for miseries which, for lack of
power, they could not remedy, and which, to their dismay, they only
intensified in their attempts at alleviation. They were even ready for
considerable sacrifices. The gracious side of the character of Louis
XVI is but a reflection of the piety, moderation, and earnestness of
many of the nobles. His rule was mild; there were no excessive
indignities practised in the name of royal power except in cases like
that of the "Bargain of Famine," where he believed himself helpless.
The lower clergy, as a whole, were faithful in the performance of
their duties. This was not true of the hierarchy. They were great
landowners, and their interests coincided with those of the upper
nobility. The doubt of the country had not left them untouched, and
there were many without conviction or principle, time-serving and
irreverent. The lawyers and other professional men were to be found,
for the most part, in Paris and in the towns. They had their
livelihood in the irregularities of society, and, as a class, were
retentive of ancient custom and present social habits. Although by
birth they belonged in the main to the third estate, they were in
reality adjunct to the first, and consequently, being integral members
of neither, formed a strong independent class by themselves. The petty
nobles were in much the same cond