These outrages were not the effect of the principles of the Revolution, but of the degraded mind that existed before the Revolution, and which the Revolution is calculated to reform.
In his defense of the French Revolution, Paine distinguishes between revolutionary principles and pre-existing societal degradation as causes of violence.
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The aristocracy has screened itself too much, and this serves to restore a part of the lost equilibrium.
The argument changes from hereditary rights to hereditary wisdom; and the question is, Who is the wisest man?
Nothing can be more terrible to a Court or Courtier than the Revolution of France.
Man cannot, properly speaking, make circumstances for his purpose, but he always has it in his power to improve them when they occur, and this was the case in France.