1. Classification of Revolutions.
WE generally apply the term revolution to sudden
political changes, but the expression may be employed to denote
all sudden transformations, or transformations apparently sudden,
whether of beliefs, ideas, or doctrines.
We have considered elsewhere the part played by the
rational, affective, and mystic factors in the genesis of the
opinions and beliefs which determine conduct. We need not
therefore return to the subject here.
A revolution may finally become a belief, but it often
commences under the action of perfectly rational motives: the
suppression of crying abuses, of a detested despotic government,
or an unpopular sovereign, &c.
Although the origin of a revolution may be perfectly
rational, we must not forget that the reasons invoked in
preparing for it do not influence the crowd
until they have been transformed into sentiments. Rational logic
can point to the abuses to be destroyed, but to move the
multitude its hopes must be awakened. This can only be effected
by the action of the affective and mystic elements which give man
the power to act. At the time of the French Revolution, for
example, rational logic, in the hands of the philosophers,
demonstrated the inconveniences of the
ancien
régime, and excited the desire to change it. Mystic
logic inspired belief in the virtues of a society created in all
its members according to certain principles. Affective logic
unchained the passions confined by the bonds of ages and led to
the worst excesses. Collective logic ruled the clubs and the
Assemblies and impelled their members to actions which neither
rational nor affective nor mystic logic would ever have caused
them to commit.
Whatever its origin, a revolution is not productive of
results until it has sunk into the soul of the multitude. Then
events acquire special forms resulting from the peculiar
psychology of crowds. Popular movements for this reason have
characteristics so pronounced that the description of one will
enable us to comprehend the others.
The multitude is, therefore, the agent of a revolution;
but not its point of departure. The crowd represents an
amorphous being which can do nothing, and will nothing, without a
head to lead it. It will quickly exceed the impulse once
received, but it never creates it.
The sudden political revolutions which strike the
historian most forcibly are often the least important. The great
revolutions are those of manners and
thought. Changing the name of a government does not transform
the mentality of a people. To overthrow the institutions of a
people is not to re-shape its soul.
The true revolutions, those which transform the destinies
of the peoples, are most frequently accomplished so slowly that
the historians can hardly point to their beginnings. The term
evolution is, therefore, far more appropriate than revolution.
The various elements we have enumerated as entering into
the genesis of the majority of revolutions will not suffice to
classify them. Considering only the designed object, we will
divide them into scientific revolutions, political revolutions,
and religious revolutions.
