ouble exaltation of his mind,
revolutionary on one side, mystical on the other, caused him to be
somewhat distrusted by the people, even by his comrades and his friends.
Sufficiently devout to be called a Jesuit by the Socialists,
sufficiently Republican to be called a Red by the Reactionists, he
formed an exception in the workshops of the Faubourg. Now, what is
needed in these supreme crises to seize and govern the masses are men
of exceptional genius, not men of exceptional opinion. There is no
revolutionary originality. In order to be something, in the time of
regeneration and in the days of social combat, one must bathe fully in
those powerful homogeneous mediums which are called parties. Great
currents of men follow great currents of ideas, and the true
revolutionary leader is he who knows how best to drive the former in
accordance with the latter.

Now the Gospel is in accordance with the Revolution, but Catholicism is
not. This is due to the fact that in the main the Papacy is not in
accordance with the Gospel. One can easily understand a Christian
Republican, one cannot understand a Catholic Democrat. It is a
combination of two opposites. It is a mind in which the negative bars
the way to the affirmative. It is a neuter.

Now in time revolution, whoever is neuter of is impotent. Nevertheless,
during the first hours of resistance against the _coup d'etat_ the
democratic Catholic workman, whose noble effort we are here relating,
threw himself so resolutely into the cause of Justice and of Truth, that
in a few moments he transformed distrust into confidence, and was hailed
by the people. He showed such gallantry at the rising of the barricade
of the Rue Aumaire that with an unanimous voice they appointed him their
leader. At the moment of the attack he defended it as he had built it,
with ardor. That was a sad but glorious battle-field; most of his
companions were killed, and he escaped only by a miracle.

However, he succeeded in returning home, saying to himself bitterly,
"All is lost."

It seemed evident to him that the great masses of the people would not
rise. Thenceforward it appeared impossible to conquer the _coup d'etat_
by a revolution; it could be only combated by legality. What had been
the risk at the beginning became the hope at the end, for he believed
the end to be fatal, and at hand. In his opinion it was necessary, as
the people were defaulters, to try now to arouse the middle classes. Let
on