amidst the disasters of a revolution.

Our slumbers have for some time been patriotically disturbed by the
danger of Holland; and the taking of the Maestricht nearly caused me a
jaundice: but the French have taught us philosophy--and their conquests
appear to afford them so little pleasure, that we ourselves hear of them
with less pain. The Convention were indeed, at first, greatly elated by
the dispatches from Amsterdam, and imagined they were on the eve of
dictating to all Europe: the churches were ordered to toll their only
bell, and the gasconades of the bulletin were uncommonly pompous--but the
novelty of the event has now subsided, and the conquest of Holland
excites less interest than the thaw. Public spirit is absorbed by
private necessities or afflictions; people who cannot procure bread or
firing, even though they have money to purchase it, are little gratified
by reading that a pair of their Deputies lodged in the Stadtholder's
palace; and the triumphs of the republic offer no consolation to the
families which it has pillaged or dismembered.

The mind, narrowed and occupied by the little cares of hunting out the
necessaries of life, and evading the restraints of a jealous government,
is not susceptible of that lively concern in distant and general events
which is the effect of ease and security; and all the recent victories
have not been able to sooth the discontents of the Parisians, who are
obliged to shiver whole hours at the door of a baker, to buy, at an
extravagant price, a trifling portion of bread.

* "Chacun se concentre aujourdhui dans sa famille et calcule ses
resources."--"The attention of every one now is confined to his
family, and to the calculation of his resources."
Discours de Lindet.