Les Misérables v. 4/5: The Idyll and the Epic Read online

  CHAPTER II.

  BADLY STITCHED.

  But the task of wise men differs greatly from that of clever men, andthe revolution of 1830 quickly stopped; for when a revolution has runashore, the clever men plunder the wreck. Clever men in our centuryhave decreed themselves the title of statesmen, so that the phrasehas eventually become a bit of slang. For it must not be forgottenthat where there is only cleverness, littleness necessarily exists,and to say "the clever" is much like saying the "mediocrities." Inthe same way the word "statesman" is often equivalent to saying"traitor." If we believe clever men, then revolutions like that ofJuly are severed arteries, and a rapid ligature is required. Right, iftoo loudly proclaimed, begins to give way, and hence so soon as rightis substantiated the State must be strengthened, and when libertyis injured attention must be turned to power. Here wise men, thoughthey have not yet separated from clever men, begin to distrust them.Power, very good! But, in the first place, what is power; and secondly,whence does it come? The clever men do not appear to hear the mutteredobjection and continue their manœuvres. According to politicians whoingeniously place a mask of necessity upon profitable fiction, thefirst want of a people after a revolution, if that people form part ofa monarchical continent, is to obtain a dynasty. In this way they saypeace is secured after the revolution, that is to say, the necessarytime for repairing the house and dressing the wounds. A dynasty hidesthe scaffolding and covers the hospital. Now, it is not always easyto obtain a dynasty, although the first man of genius or the firstadventurer met with is sufficient to make a king. You have in the firstcase Bonaparte, and in the second Iturbide. But the first family comeacross is not sufficient to form a dynasty, for there is necessarilya certain amount of antiquity required as a race, and the wrinkle ofcenturies cannot be improvised.

  If we place ourselves at the standpoint of statesmen, with all duereserves of course, what are the qualities of a king who issuesfrom a revolution? He may be, and it is useful that he should be,revolutionary; that is to say, have played a personal part in therevolution, have become either compromised or renowned in it, andhave wielded the axe or drawn the sword. What are the qualities of adynasty? It must be national; that is to say, distantly revolutionary,not through acts done, but through ideas accepted. It must be composedof the past and be historical, and of the future and be sympathetic.All this explains why the first revolutions are satisfied with findinga man, Napoleon or Cromwell, while the second are determined on findinga family, like the House of Brunswick or the House of Orléans. Royalhouses resemble those Indian fig-trees, each branch of which bendsdown, becomes rooted in the ground, and grows into a fig-tree. Eachbranch of the family may become a dynasty, on the sole condition thatit bends down to the people. Such is the theory of clever men.

  This, then, is the great art,--to give success the sound of acatastrophe, so that those who profit by it may also tremble at it;to season every step taken with fear; to increase the curve of thetransition until progress is checked; to spoil this daybreak, denounceand retrench the roughness of enthusiasm; to cut angles and nails; topad the triumph, muffle the right, roll the giant people in flannel,and put it to bed at full speed; to place this excess of health undermedical treatment, and regard Hercules as a convalescent; to dilutethe event in expediency, and offer to minds thirsting for the idealthis weak nectar; to take precautions against extreme success, andprovide the revolution with a sunshade. 1830 practised this theory,which had already been applied to England by 1688. 1830 is a revolutionarrested half-way, and a moiety of progress is almost right. Now, logicignores this as absolutely as the sun ignores a rush-light. Who checkrevolutions half-way? The bourgeoisie. Why? Because the bourgeoisierepresent satisfied self-interest. Yesterday appetite was felt, to-dayfulness, and to-morrow satiety. The phenomenon of 1814, after Napoleon,was reproduced in 1830 after Charles X. Attempts have been made, thoughwrongly, to convert the bourgeoisie into a class, but they are merelythe contented portion of the population. The bourgeois is a man whohas at last time to sit down, and a chair is not a caste. But througha desire to sit down too soon, the progress of the human race may bearrested, and this has frequently been the fault of the bourgeoisie;and people are not a class because they commit a fault, and selfishnessis not one of the divisions of the social order. However, as we mustbe just even towards selfishness, the condition for which that portionof the nation called the bourgeoisie yearned after the shock of 1830was not inertness, which is complicated with indifference and sloth,and contains a little shame; nor was it sleep, which presupposes amomentary oblivion accessible to dreams, but it was a halt. This wordcontains a double, singular, and almost contradictory meaning, for itimplies troops on the march, that is to say, movement, and a stop-page,that is to say, rest. A halt is the restoration of strength, it isrepose armed and awake, it is the accomplished fact, posting itssentries and standing on guard. A halt presupposes a combat yesterdayand a combat to-morrow,--it is the interlude between 1830 and 1848.

  What we here call combat may also be called progress. Hence thebourgeoisie as well as the statesmen required a man who expressedthe idea of a halt, an "although-because," a composite individualitysignifying revolution and stability; in other words, strengtheningthe present by the evident compatibility of the past with the future.This man was found "ready-made," and his name was Louis Philipped'Orléans. The 221 made Louis Philippe king, and Lafayette undertookthe coronation. He named him "the best of Republics," and the Town Hallof Paris was substituted for the Cathedral of Rheims. This substitutionof a half-throne for a complete throne was "the work of 1830." Whenthe clever men had completed their task, the immense fault of theirsolution was apparent; all this had been done beyond the pale ofabsolute right, which shouted, "I protest!" and then, formidable thing,receded into the darkness.