CHAPTER VI
2. The Apparent Intervals of the Revolution
The existence of periods of accentuated calm might give the impression that at such times the Revolution has ceased. It would thus seem that the revolutionary process is not continuous and therefore not one.
However, these calms are merely metamorphoses of the Revolution. The periods of apparent tranquility – the supposed intervals – have usually been times of silent and profound revolutionary ferment. Consider, for example, the period of the Restoration (1815-1830).12
Consecration of Charles X as King of France in the Cathedral of Reims, 1825. Painting by François Gérard.
3. The March from Refinement to Refinement
From what we have seen,13 each stage of the Revolution, compared with the preceding one, is but a refinement. Naturalistic humanism and Protestantism were refined in the French Revolution, which in its turn was refined in the great revolutionary process of the Bolshevization of the contemporary world.
The fact is that disordered passions, moving in a crescendo analogous to the acceleration of gravity and feeding upon their own works, lead to consequences which, in their turn, develop according to a proportional intensity. In like progression, errors beget errors, and revolutions prepare the way for revolutions.
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Revolution and Counter-Revolution (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), Part I, Ch. VI, Pgs. 30-31
12. See Part I, Chapter 4.
13. See 1, C, above.
