We are in the middle of the nineteenth century. In a work dedicated to Philippe de Marnix, Baron de Sainte-Aldegonde, a hero of the history of our regions, at the time of the Netherlands under the Habsburgs, the French writer, historian and politician Edgar Quinet writes: “The people have their moments of cowardice or stupor; neither words nor actions have any more power over them, and all would be lost if salvation had to come from the momentum of public conscience. To wait for the masses to wake up on their own would be to expect the impossible: but then there are individuals who watch over an entire people, and it is for these times that heroes are made; by keeping themselves intact, they manage to revive others. » In another book devoted to the Revolution of 1789, the anticlerical republican writes: “If it is difficult to prevent people who are accustomed to it from thinking, it is a hundred times more difficult to force those who have it to think. forgotten or unlearned. » So, who was Edgar Quinet? For many: unclassifiable like Montaigne, Pascal or Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Although he gave his name to streets and schools in the Third Republic, he has since been largely forgotten. However, he was one of the masters of the youth of the 1840s who were going to make the revolution of 1848. “Do not give the world the extreme pleasure of asking it to do the impossible so that it can authorize itself to refuse you the necessary,” he warned again. Let us illuminate ourselves in the light of Edgar Quinet… Guest: Vincent Genin, doctor in history, researcher at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris. Subjects covered: Edgar Quinet, Habsburg, revolution, Montaigne, Pascal, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Third Republic
Belgium
