Sketch by Jacques-Louis David of the Tennis Court Oath.

On this date in 1789 members of the revolutionary National Constituent Assembly took an oath to ban feudalism and abandon their privileges.

Frye in “The Question of ‘Success'”:

One of the prominent figures in the French Revolution was asked what he did, what he achieved in the French Revolution, and he said: “J’ai servécu” — I survived. (CW 7, 300)