All sublime conquests are, more or less, the prizes of daring. In order that the Revolution should take place, it does not suffice that Montesquieu should foresee it, that Diderot should preach it, that Beaumarchais should announce it, that Condorcet should calculate it, that Arouet should prepare it, that Rousseau should premeditate it; it is necessary that Danton should dare it.
The cry:
Audacity! is a Fiat lux.
It is necessary, for the sake of the forward march of the human race, that there should be proud lessons of courage permanently on the heights.
Daring deeds dazzle history and are one of man's great sources of light. The dawn dares when it rises.
To attempt, to brave, to persist, to persevere, to be faithful to one's self, to grasp fate bodily, to astound catastrophe by the small amount of fear that it occasions us, now to affront unjust power, again to insult drunken victory, to hold one's position, to stand one's ground; that is the example which nations need, that is the light which electrifies them. The same formidable lightning proceeds from the torch of Prometheus to Cambronne's short pipe.
BOOK FIRST.--PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM
CHAPTER XII
THE FUTURE LATENT IN THE PEOPLE
As for the Parisian populace, even when a man grown, it is always the street Arab; to paint the child is to paint the city; and it is for that reason that we have studied this eagle in this arrant sparrow. It is in the faubourgs, above all, we maintain, that the Parisian race appears; there is the pure blood; there is the true physiognomy; there this people toils and suffers, and suffering and toil are the two faces of man.
There exist there immense numbers of unknown beings, among whom swarm types of the strangest, from the porter of la Rapee to the knacker of Montfaucon.
Fex urbis, exclaims Cicero; mob, adds Burke, indignantly; rabble, multitude, populace.
These are words and quickly uttered.
But so be it.
What does it matter? What is it to me if they do go barefoot!
They do not know how to read; so much the worse.
Would you abandon them for that?
Would you turn their distress into a malediction?