Preface to the American Edition
The French Revolution is an inexhaustible quarry. Many works have been written upon it; many more will be written; and safe it is to predict that something of value will be brought out in all. For all that, what has been brought out is ample to justify the popular sentiment that the subject is one of deep and lasting importance.
But it is not merely in a general sense that the story of the French Revolution has permanent interest to the American reader. It is interesting to him in a special sense. Especially if the American reader be a student, he will find the story of the French Revolution to be of invaluable aid to his understanding and appreciating those features of the story of the American Revolution without the understanding and appreciation of which the flavor of the American Revolution is lost, and many of the lessons of both are very materially forfeited.
"Same causes lead to same results." Here is a maxim as true as it is exposed to grave error. "Causes" run imperceptibly into "results," and the reaction of "results" upon "causes" is so subtle that the two are often confused. Moreover, it is as important as it is often difficult to separate "causes" from "accompaniments" and properly group them. These are the pitfalls into which the superficial reader falls, and due to which the lessons of history are mainly lost to him. The story of the French Revolution furnishes an instance, and the
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