What would become of the state if no one consented to serve it? Would
not everything come to a standstill? To keep his place is the duty of a
good citizen. Learn to sacrifice your secret preferences. Appointments
must be filled, and some one must necessarily sacrifice himself. To be
faithful to public functions is true fidelity. The retirement of public
officials would paralyse the state. What! banish yourself!--how weak! As
an example?--what vanity! As a defiance?--what audacity! What do you set
yourself up to be, I wonder? Learn that we are just as good as you. If
we chose we too could be intractable and untameable and do worse things
than you; but we prefer to be sensible people. Because I am a
Trimalcion, you think that I could not be a Cato! What nonsense!




III.


Never was a situation more clearly defined or more decisive than that of
1660. Never had a course of conduct been more plainly indicated to a
well-ordered mind. England was out of Cromwell's grasp. Under the
republic many irregularities had been committed. British preponderance
had been created. With the aid of the Thirty Years' War, Germany had
been overcome; with the aid of the Fronde, France had been humiliated;
with the aid of the Duke of Braganza, the power of Spain had been
lessened. Cromwell had tamed Mazarin; in signing treaties the Protector
of England wrote his name above that of the King of France. The United
Provinces had been put under a fine of eight millions; Algiers and Tunis
had been attacked; Jamaica conquered; Lisbon humbled; French rivalry
encouraged in Barcelona, and Masaniello in Naples; Portugal had been