thence through Europe; it would have been installed like a philosophy in
facts, in laws, and in creeds. But it was otherwise decreed. The holiest
most just and virtuous thought, when it passes through the medium of
imperfect humanity, comes out in rags and in blood. Those very persons
who conceived it, no longer recognise, disavow it. Yet it is not
permitted, even to crime, to degrade the truth, that survives all, even
its victims. The blood which sullies men does not stain its idea; and
despite the selfishness which debases it, the infamies which trammel it,
the crimes which pollute it, the blood-stained Revolution purifies
itself, feels its own worth, triumphs, and will triumph.




BOOK II.


I.

The National Assembly, wearied with two years of existence, relaxed in
its legislative movement: from the moment when it had nothing more to
destroy, it really was at a loss what to do. The Jacobins took umbrage
at it, its popularity was disappearing, the press inveighed against it,
the clubs insulted it; the worn-out tool by which the people had
acquired conquest, it felt the people were about to snap it asunder if
it did not dissolve of its own accord. Its sittings were inanimate, and
it was completing the constitution as a task inflicted on it, but at
which it was discouraged before completion. It had no belief in the
duration of that which it proclaimed imperishable. The lofty voices
which had shaken France so long were now no more, or were silent from