Read the passage. dickens’s novel deals with the events surrounding the french revolution (1789–1794), which overthrew the king and the nobles and severely weakened the political power of the roman catholic church. monseigneur is a french title that indicates a high-ranking priest. excerpt from a tale of two cities by charles dickens monseigneur, one of the great lords in power at the court, held his fortnightly reception in his grand hotel in paris. monseigneur was in his inner room, his sanctuary of sanctuaries, the holiest of holiests to the crowd of worshippers in the suite of rooms without. monseigneur was about to take his chocolate. monseigneur could swallow a great many things with ease, and was by some few sullen minds supposed to be rather rapidly swallowing france; but, his morning's chocolate could not so much as get into the throat of monseigneur, without the aid of four strong men besides the cook. yes. it took four men, all four ablaze with gorgeous decoration, and the chief of them unable to exist with fewer than two gold watches in his pocket, emulative of the noble and chaste fashion set by monseigneur, to conduct the happy chocolate to monseigneur's lips. one lacquey carried the chocolate-pot into the sacred presence; a second, milled and frothed the chocolate with the little instrument he bore for that function; a third, presented the favoured napkin; a fourth (he of the two gold watches), poured the chocolate out. it was impossible for monseigneur to dispense with one of these attendants on the chocolate and hold his high place under the admiring heavens. deep would have been the blot upon his escutcheon if his chocolate had been ignobly waited on by only three men; he must have died of two. monseigneur had been out at a little supper last night, where the comedy and the grand opera were charmingly represented. monseigneur was out at a little supper most nights, with fascinating company. so polite and so impressible was monseigneur, that the comedy and the grand opera had far more influence with him in the tiresome articles of state affairs and state secrets, than the needs of all france. a happy circumstance for france, as the like always is for all countries similarly favoured! — always was for england (by way of example), in the regretted days of the merry stuart who sold it. monseigneur had one truly noble idea of general public business, which was, to let everything go on in its own way; of particular public business, monseigneur had the other truly noble idea that it must all go his way—tend to his own power and pocket. of his pleasures, general and particular, monseigneur had the other truly noble idea, that the world was made for them. the text of his order (altered from the original by only a pronoun, which is not much) ran: "the earth and the fulness thereof are mine, saith monseigneur." how do the historical realities of this period affect this excerpt from the novel? dickens uses the details of a priest's day to show that a typical french person at the time of the revolution lived surprisingly well. the description of the priest's absurd activities shows that the french revolution was fundamentally an unreasonable course of events. by showing the monseigneur's thoughts, dickens shows that some members of the ruling class in france were decent people at heart. the excerpt emphasizes the luxurious lifestyle of the wealthy and their indifference to the public good in order to justify the french revolution.