That is why, should we wish to understand our present condition our attention always reverts to the terrible and fruitful crisis by which the ancient regime produced the Revolution, and the Revolution the new regime.
Ancient regime, Revolution, new regime, I am going to try to describe these three conditions with exactitude.

I have no other object in view.

A historian may be allowed the privilege of a naturalist; I have regarded my subject the same as the metamorphosis of an insect.
Moreover, the event is so interesting in itself that it is worth the trouble of being observed for its own sake, and no effort is required to suppress one's ulterior motives.

Freed from all prejudice, curiosity becomes scientific and may be completely concentrated on the secret forces, which guide the wonderful process.

These forces are the situation, the passions, the ideas, the wills of each group of actors, and which can be defined and almost measured.