BOOK FIRST.--A FEW PAGES OF
       HISTORY

 
  CHAPTER I WELL CUT

    1831 and 1832,
           the two years
              which are immediately
                  connected with the Revolution
                       of July,
         form one of the
               most peculiar
             and striking moments of history.

    These two years rise
           like two mountains midway
               between those
          which precede and those
        which follow them.

    They have a revolutionary grandeur.

    Precipices are
          to be distinguished there.

    The social masses,
           the very assizes of civilization,
         the solid group
               of superposed and
              adhering interests,
           the century-old profiles
               of the ancient French formation,
         appear and disappear
               in them every instant,
           athwart the storm
               clouds of systems,
         of passions,
           and of theories.

    These appearances and disappearances
          have been
              designated as movement and resistance.

    At intervals,
           truth,
         that daylight
               of the human soul,
           can be descried shining there.

    This remarkable epoch
        is decidedly circumscribed
            and is beginning
                  to be sufficiently distant
                       from us
                      to allow
                           of our grasping
                               the principal lines
         even at the present day.

    We shall make the attempt.

    The Restoration
        had been one of those
             intermediate
                phases,
           hard to define,
         in which there is fatigue,
           buzzing,
         murmurs,
           sleep,
         tumult,
           and which
            are nothing else
                   than the arrival
                       of a great nation
                     at a halting-place.

    These epochs
        are peculiar
              and mislead the politicians
         who desire
               to convert them to profit.

    In the beginning,
           the nation asks nothing
             but repose;
        it thirsts for
             but one thing,
           peace;
        it has but one ambition,
           to be small.

    Which is the translation
           of remaining tranquil.

    Of great events,
           great hazards,
         great adventures,
           great men,
         thank God,
           we have seen enough,
         we have them
              heaped higher than our heads.

    We would
          exchange Caesar for Prusias,
           and Napoleon
               for the King of Yvetot.

    "What a good little king
        was he!"

    We have marched since daybreak,
           we have
              reached the evening
                   of a long
                 and toilsome day;
        we have
              made our first change
                   with Mirabeau,
           the second with Robespierre,
         the third with Bonaparte;
        we are worn out.

    Each one demands a bed.

    Devotion which is weary,
           heroism which has grown old,
         ambitions which are sated,
           fortunes which are made,
         seek,
           demand,
         implore,
           solicit,
         what?

    A shelter.

    They have it.

    They take possession of peace,
           of tranquillity,
         of leisure;
        behold,
           they are content.

    But,
        at the same time certain
                 facts arise,
         compel recognition,
           and knock
               at the door
             in their turn.

    These facts
        are the products of revolutions
               and wars,
           they are,
         they exist,
           they have the right
              to install themselves in society,
         and they
              do install themselves therein;
        and most of the time,
           facts are the stewards
               of the household
             and fouriers[32]
             who do nothing
               but prepare lodgings for principles.

    [32] In olden times,
           fouriers were the officials
             who preceded the Court
                   and allotted the lodgings.

    This,
           then,
         is what
            appears to philosophical politicians:-
        -

    At the same time
         that weary men demand repose,
           accomplished facts demand guarantees.

    Guarantees are the same
           to facts
         that repose is to men.