Page 267 - les-miserables
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which we have just indicated there is the social symptom.
It is not rare for the neatherd’s boy nowadays to bear the
name of Arthur, Alfred, or Alphonse, and for the vicomte—
if there are still any vicomtes—to be called Thomas, Pierre,
or Jacques. This displacement, which places the ‘elegant’
name on the plebeian and the rustic name on the aristo-
crat, is nothing else than an eddy of equality. The irresistible
penetration of the new inspiration is there as everywhere
else. Beneath this apparent discord there is a great and a
profound thing,— the French Revolution.
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