Herein, perhaps, may be found the secret of its complexity, of its seeming
contradictions. The authors of the Revolution pursued an ideal, an ideal
expressed in three words, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. That they might
win their quest, they had both to destroy and to construct. They had to
sweep away the past, and from the resultant chaos to construct a new
order. Alike in destruction and construction, they committed errors; they
fell far below their high ideals. The altruistic enthusiasts of the
National Assembly gave place to the practical politicians of the
Convention, the diplomatists of the Directory, the generals of the
Consulate. The Empire was far from realising that bright vision of a
regenerate nation which had dazzled the eyes of Frenchmen in the first
hours of the States-General. Liberty was sacrificed to efficiency;
equality to man's love for titles of honour; fraternity to desire of
glory. So it has been with all human effort. Man is imperfect, and his
imperfection mars his fairest achievements. Whatever great movement may be
considered, its ultimate attainment has fallen far short of its initial
promise. The authors of the Revolution were but men; they were no more
able than their fellows to discover and to hold fast to the true way of
happiness. They wavered between the two extremes of despotism and anarchy;
they declined from the path of grace. And their task remained unfulfilled.
Many of their dreams were far from attaining realisation; they inaugurated
no era of perfect bliss; they produced no Utopia. But their labour was not
in vain. Despite its disappointments, despite all its crimes and blunders,
the French Revolution was a great, a wonderful event. It did contribute to
the uplifting of humanity, and the world is the better for its occurrence.

That he might indicate this truth, that he might do something to
counteract the distortion of the past, Mignet wrote his _Histoire de la
Revolution Francaise_. At the moment when he came from Aix to Paris, the