We have even, on the one hand, samples of the materials of the dresses worn by Marie Antoinette, pinned on paper and classified by dates.

And on the other hand, we can tell what clothes were worn by the peasant, describe the bread he ate, specify the flour it was made of, and state the cost of a pound of it in sous and deniers.[0012] With such resources one becomes almost contemporary with the men whose history one writes and, more than once, in the Archives, I have, while tracing their old handwriting on the time-stained paper before me, been tempted to speak aloud with them.
H.A.Taine, August 1875.
NOTES: [Footnote 0011: Taine's friend who was the director of the French National Archives.

(SR.)] [Footnote 0012: One sou equals 1/20th of a franc or 5 centimes.

12 diniers equaled one sou.

(SR.)].