use the expression employed by his enemies, who were anxious to diminish
his glory, but which it would be more proper to call apparent
contradictions. Envious people and fools, having no knowledge of the
determinations by which superior spirits are moved, seize at once on
superficial inconsistencies, to formulate an accusation and so to pass
sentence on them. If, subsequently, the proceedings thus attacked are
crowned with success, showing the correlations of the preliminaries and
the results, a few of the vanguard of calumnies always survive. In our
day, for instance, Napoleon was condemned by our contemporaries when he
spread his eagle's wings to alight in England: only 1822 could explain
1804 and the flatboats at Boulogne.

As, in Desplein, his glory and science were invulnerable, his enemies
attacked his odd moods and his temper, whereas, in fact, he was simply
characterized by what the English call eccentricity. Sometimes very
handsomely dressed, like Crebillon the tragical, he would suddenly
affect extreme indifference as to what he wore; he was sometimes seen in
a carriage, and sometimes on foot. By turns rough and kind, harsh and
covetous on the surface, but capable of offering his whole fortune to
his exiled masters--who did him the honor of accepting it for a few
days--no man ever gave rise to such contradictory judgements. Although
to obtain a black ribbon, which physicians ought not to intrigue for, he
was capable of dropping a prayer-book out of his pocket at Court, in his
heart he mocked at everything; he had a deep contempt for men, after
studying them from above and below, after detecting their genuine
expression when performing the most solemn and the meanest acts of their
lives.

The qualities of a great man are often federative. If among these
colossal spirits one has more talent than wit, his wit is still superior